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$20 Billion Figma Deal Is A Historic Coup For Startup Investors In An Otherwise Miserable Year https://digitalalabamanews.com/20-billion-figma-deal-is-a-historic-coup-for-startup-investors-in-an-otherwise-miserable-year/ Adobe is paying 2021 prices. It’s 2022. Wall Street hates it. Silicon Valley is thrilled. In a year that’s featured exactly zero high-profile tech IPOs and far more headlines about mass layoffs than big funding rounds, Adobe’s $20 billion acquisition of Figma on Thursday is what some might call a narrative violation. There was no other bidder out there driving up the price, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details are confidential. Figma’s cloud-based designed software has been a growing headache for Adobe over the last few years. It’s cheaper (there’s even a free tier), easier to use, collaborative and modern, and has been spreading like wildfire among designers at companies big and small. Annualized recurring revenue is poised to more than double for a second straight year, surpassing $400 million in 2022. “This was a significant threat to Adobe,” Lo Toney, founding managing partner of Plexo Capital, which invests in start-ups and venture funds, told CNBC’s “TechCheck” on Thursday. “This was very much both a defensive move but also an eye towards this trend where design rules and design matters.” That’s why Adobe is paying roughly 50 times revenue following a stretch this year that saw investors dump stocks that were commanding sky-high multiples. For the top cloud companies in the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, forward multiples have fallen to just over 9 times revenue from about 25 in February 2021. Snowflake, Atlassian and Cloudflare, the three cloud stocks with the highest revenue multiples, have plumetted 41%, 33% and 51% this year, respectively. After the announcement on Thursday, Adobe shares sank more than 17% and headed for their worst day since 2010. The company said in a slide presentation that the deal isn’t expected to add to adjusted earnings until “the end of year three.” Figma last raised private capital at a $10 billion valuation in June 2021, the peak of software mania. The company had benefitted from the work-from-home movement during the pandemic, as more designers needed tools that could help them collaborate while separated from their colleagues. But now, even with more offices reopening, the hybrid trend has done nothing to take Figma off course, while other pandemic-friendly products like Zoom and DocuSign have slowed dramatically. Given the plunge in cloud stocks, late-stage companies have steered cleared of the IPO market — and private financings in a lot of cases — to avoid taking a haircut on their lofty valuations. Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures wrote in a blog post on Thursday that prior to this deal, “U.S. venture-backed software M&A was tracking to its worst year since 2017.” In such an environment, Figma’s ability to exit at double its price from 15 months ago is a coup for early investors. The three venture firms that led Figma’s earliest rounds — Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins — all own percentage stakes in the double-digits, people familiar with the matter said. That means they’ll each return over $1 billion. Investors in the 2021 round doubled their money. They include Durable Capital Partners and Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint. While those sorts of numbers were routinely recorded during the record IPO years of 2020 and 2021, they’re foreign this year, as investors reckon with surging inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical unrest. Too young to drink Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures and Figma board member, said the company was in position to get ready for an IPO and was in no hurry to tap the capital markets, either private or public. “We had raised a lot of money at very good valuations and didn’t need to raise any more money,” said Rimer, whose firm first invested in Figma in 2013. “The company was IPO-able. This really was more a question of what is the best way to achieve the goal of company, which is to democratize tools for design and creation across the globe.” Dylan Field, co-founder and chief executive officer of Figma Inc., in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, June 24, 2021. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Rimer said Figma has gone through quite a journey since he first met founder and CEO Dylan Field, who had dropped out of college to start the company as part of the Thiel Fellowship program, in which the tech billionaire Peter Thiel offered promising entrepreneurs $100,000 grants. When they met, Field was only 19. “I took him to dinner and couldn’t buy him a drink,” Rimer said. For Adobe, Figma marks the company’s biggest acquisition in its 40-year history by a wide margin. Its largest prior deal came in 2018, when Adobe acquired marketing software vendor Marketo for $4.75 billion. Before that, the biggest was Macromedia for $3.4 billion in 2005. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen explained his company’s rationale on CNBC, as his company’s stock ticker on the screen flashed bright red. “Figma is actually one of these rare companies that has achieved incredible escape velocity,” said Narayen, Adobe’s CEO since 2007. “They have a fabulous product that appeals to millions of people, they have escape velocity as it relates to their financial performance and a profitable company, which is very rare, as you know, in software-as-a-service companies.” Adobe needs the growth and new user base from Figma to maintain its dominant position in design. For investors, Narayen can only ask them to play the long game. “It is going to be a great value for their shareholders,” Narayen said regarding Figma, “as well as Adobe’s shareholders.” — CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report WATCH: CNBC’s interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen Read More…

The Liberal Imagination  https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-liberal-imagination/ Commentary When President Joe Biden took the step of casting MAGA citizens as the enemy within, writers and Tweeters on the right, the former-president included, registered shock and anger, and rightly so. But I’m willing to bet that a whole lot of conservative Americans without an audience had a different reaction: “I knew this was coming.” After all, a version of this demonization has been happening for decades. Think of the father in “Footloose,” played by John Lithgow, an uptight tyrant religiously motivated to deny free and healthy expression. Or the murderous gun-toting homophobe in “American Beauty” who is, in truth, repressing his own same-sex desires. Or the sexist husband in “Thelma and Louise,” arrogant and stupid, putting down his wife (while never pleasing her in bed). These characters are what liberals see when they imagine attendees at a Trump rally. The MAGA voter exists to them only in far-out stereotype. They don’t find out who the real people are. Images do the work for them, images of Bull Connor, Archie Bunker, Jim and Tammy Faye, Joe McCarthy, and Mr. Burns in “The Simpsons.” The MAGA phenomenon exploded in 2015, surprising liberals so much that one day before the 2016 election liberals leaned back and smiled in blithe joy at the foolish losers on the other side. That Donald Trump would win was laughable. That he did win should have caused them to reconsider their assumptions, to question whether they really understood their adversaries. But they couldn’t do that. They knew too well how hidebound and primitive was and is the MAGA crowd. Other reasons had to be found (Russia). Liberals are too smart to misjudge their lesser brethren. Trump merely reignited a shameful and all-too-familiar strain in American society, one that goes back to the bad old days of Jim Crow, women in the kitchen, and nativism. Liberals didn’t need to heed what MAGA thinkers and policymakers had to say. They’d heard it all already. One merely had to translate “America First” into more accurate terms of racism, sexism, … Academics call this collective sense of social matters a “social imaginary.” It resides precisely in the imaginations of people, what they ordinarily envision people and things to be without looking closely, how they feel about them, their value and goodness. People don’t reason their way to these assumptions. It’s not a logical or empirical process. The imaginary has formed in their heads through hundreds of hours of exposure to “All in the Family” and “Laugh-In,” “The Daily Show,” films such as “Love, Actually” that pretend to be funny stories but are in fact cheap propaganda, news shows such as the one hosted by Bill Moyers, whose solemn air covers up the bilious ideologue underneath, public art and architecture that scoffs at tradition and extols the edgy and controversial (for the thousandth time), and that mocks the ordinary American who responds to a new installation in the civic plaza, “I don’t get it.” After 10 years of consumption, the conditioning has settled into the individual mind. Stereotypes have formed; attitudes have congealed. A social imaginary is in place. People experience it unconsciously. It appears to them as truth and fact, not as opinion, and it’s swiftly activated. Liberals don’t examine Steve Bannon and conclude that he’s a renegade bigot. He appears that way from the very first second. They don’t judge a Trump supporter a nasty yokel; the perception works faster than that, less inferentially. He just is a nasty yokel. Their imagination tells them so, though they believe they actually see the nasty yokel with their own eyes. It’s instantaneous; I’ve observed it happen. The moment a Trump crowd passes on the screen, gasps of disgust follow. Each person in the crowd has an individual story, a unique life, but our liberal groups them into a few handy caricatures that come from the social imaginary and have authority. The imaginary prevails over the reality. Contrary facts don’t disrupt it. Trump himself brings agreements to the Middle East that every peace-loving liberal should cheer, but none of them can. Years of acculturation don’t dissipate because of a few exceptions. It’s easier to deny one of them than it is to confront a constitutive ingredient of one’s worldview. This is what MAGA conservatives are up against. Biden’s speech drew upon the imaginary in his demonization. He is a conduit, not a source. The Democratic Party in its current state is but the political side of a socio-ethical vision that media, architecture, academia, and technology have put together for a long time, longer than I have been alive. When I was in graduate school in the 1980s, in fact, professors talked and wrote about this process all time. It went by the name of “Othering,” whereby a discourse or outlook treated a group or a culture in a dehumanizing way, casting it as “the Other.” The impersonal title was taken as a fair representation of the denial of full humanity to the Other, for instance, the treatment of slaves in proslavery arguments. The concept carried a lot of weight in 1990. One could rise in a question-and-answer period and accuse a speaker of Othering an individual or an identity, and the charge made the speaker nervous. You weren’t supposed to Other anyone. Don’t strip the Other of agency and subjectivity, the professors insisted. Though they didn’t use the word stereotype, it really marked but another turn of the screw, made more academic and theoretical, and no less culpable. At the same time, however, as academics forbade the Othering of non-mainstream identities and figures of victimhood, academia proceeded to Other any representative of traditional, bourgeois, American life over and over. Their defense of the native suffering under colonialism and the woman forced into becoming a Stepford Wife was balanced by their contempt for conservative types. They de-Othered some and hyper-Othered others, the latter, of course, being white, heterosexual, Christian males. Those bad guys Othered women, minorities, and Third-Worlders for long enough. Time for karma. Turnabout is fair play. Revenge is sweet. That was the rationale. They had their time, and now it’s our time. Here, stereotyping had a moral sanction, and it felt very, very good. This dynamic continues today. Conservatives, in their political contests, face not simply a debate over civics and mores. They also confront a powerful emotional investment liberals have in the Othering of conservatives. They enjoy it; they savor it. To battle a caricature may be a mode of false consciousness, but the more a liberal demeans a conservative, the higher a liberal rises before the engagement even begins. The pleasure they get in insulting a right-winger shines on their faces. They don’t want to give it up. The joys of superiority are powerful, the position of the prosecutor exhilarating. In this situation, conservatives aren’t going to overcome their foes by words, facts, and ideas. Liberals will abandon their emotional commitment only when it produces emotional costs. Someone who regards you as a demon, and likes doing so, stops only when he experiences different, unpleasant emotions: fear, embarrassment, and exasperation. Don’t debate liberal adversaries who won’t treat you fairly. Laugh at them; highlight their weaknesses. The old public square of democratic discussion and competition is over. America is now an ideological-psychological-emotional war zone. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Follow Mark Bauerlein is an emeritus professor of English at Emory University. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, the TLS, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Read More…

Trump Claims He Declassified Mar-A-Lago Docs, But His Lawyers Avoid Making That Assertion – Local News 8 https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-claims-he-declassified-mar-a-lago-docs-but-his-lawyers-avoid-making-that-assertion-local-news-8/ By Tierney Sneed Former President Donald Trump claimed on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Thursday that he declassified the government records that were taken to Mar-a-Lago — an assertion that his attorneys have avoided making in the litigation around the FBI’s seizure of the materials. Hewitt asked Trump about an account given by his former White House aide Kash Patel that Patel witnessed Trump’s giving a verbal order to declassify the documents taken to Mar-a-Lago. (Patel, in an interview with Breitbart, said the materials Trump declassified had to do with the Russia probe, the Ukraine impeachment proceedings and “major national security matters of great public importance.”) “That’s correct,” Trump said. “And not only that, I think it was other people also were there. But I have the absolute right to declassify, absolute — a president has that absolute right, and a lot of people aren’t even challenging that anymore.” Trump added later in the interview that “everything was declassified.” In a court filing earlier this week, the Justice Department drilled down on the absence of any such assertion from Trump’s legal team in court, while also arguing to the court that, even if he did declassify the materials, it would still be irrelevant to the legal dispute over the search. Trump’s attorneys have sought to cast doubt that the 100-plus documents with classification markings that the FBI seized last month are in fact classified. But his attorneys have not said outright that Trump declassified the materials. Trump, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday, “principally seeks to raise questions about the classification status of the records and their categorization under the Presidential Records Act (PRA). But Plaintiff does not actually assert — much less provide any evidence — that any of the seized records bearing classification markings have been declassified.” None of the criminal statutes the Justice Department cited when applying for the warrant it used to search Trump’s home hinged on the documents in question being classified. Eighteen former officials in Trump’s administration also told CNN last month that they were aware of no such declassification order and that they believed Trump’s claims to be patently false. During the Thursday radio interview, Trump said he did not believe he would be indicted. When asked if he had received a target letter in connection with the DOJ’s probe into the fake electors, Trump said he had not, nor had he been asked to appear before the grand jury. “I wasn’t involved with alternate slates,” Trump said. That claim that has been contradicted by testimony given in the House’s January 6 investigation, where RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel testified that Trump called her as part of the effort to use fake electors to support him. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

Unpacking The Apparent Trump-Hillary Double Standard: For Her, The FBI Helped Obstruct Its Own Investigation https://digitalalabamanews.com/unpacking-the-apparent-trump-hillary-double-standard-for-her-the-fbi-helped-obstruct-its-own-investigation/ Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch obtained evidence that a computer contractor working under the direction of Hillary Clinton’s legal team destroyed subpoenaed records that the former secretary of state stored on a private email server she originally kept at her New York home, and then lied to investigators about it. Yet no charges were brought against Clinton, her lawyers, or her paid consultant. The leniency accorded to Clinton contrasts with recent moves by Attorney General Merrick Garland to aggressively investigate former President Trump and his lawyers for allegedly obstructing investigators’ efforts to locate subpoenaed records at his Florida home. Legal experts say the apparent double standard may provide a useful defense for Trump and his legal team. The treatment of Clinton included a deal with her defense team that required the FBI to, in effect, obstruct its own investigation. During its 2016 probe, the bureau agreed with her lawyers’ demands to destroy two laptop hard drives containing subpoenaed evidence immediately after searching for files on them. They did so while the information was still being sought by congressional investigators and even though the lawyers had served under Clinton at the State Department and were subjects of the FBI’s investigation. In fact, the laptops were theirs. Long before it bowed to the request, the FBI suspected Clinton’s lawyers played hide-and-seek with evidence, making the concession that much more baffling. The scandal first erupted on March 2, 2015, when news broke that Clinton had secretly set up a non-government email server in the basement of her Chappaqua, N.Y., mansion in the weeks before she started her job at Foggy Bottom in early 2009. She used the unauthorized and unsecured device to conduct official State Department business—including transmitting and storing classified information—which allowed her to bypass legally mandated archiving of her government records. The next day, the House Select Committee on Benghazi sent her attorney David Kendall a letter advising his client to preserve all electronic records created since January 2009 and specifically not to delete any emails on her private server. The panel then issued a subpoena for records related to the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya. Three weeks later, on March 25, Kendall and former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills, who also acted as her personal attorney, asked a computer contractor with Platte River Networks, which hosted Clinton’s secret email server, to join a conference call with them, according to FBI documents. Over the next week, the contractor, Paul Combetta, deleted the entire email archive from Clinton’s server using a software program called BleachBit, which digitally “shreds” files to prevent their recovery. All told, the paid Clinton agent scrubbed 31,830 emails from her server and backup files. In addition, he permanently removed duplicates of the emails from the laptops of Mills and another Clinton lawyer and aide, Heather Samuelson, where they also had been stored. According to FBI records, Combetta knew the documents he destroyed were under subpoena. In July 2015, the FBI counterintelligence division opened a criminal investigation, codenamed “Midyear Exam,” in response to a referral from the intelligence community inspector general concerning Clinton’s unsecure server. The FBI predicated the opening of the probe on the possible compromise of highly classified Sensitive Compartmented Information. Emails classified at the SCI level were later found on Clinton’s server. Some career FBI agents working on the case, which was tightly controlled within headquarters and deemed a “SIM,” or sensitive investigative matter, thought they had a slam-dunk case of obstruction, a key aggravating factor for prosecuting cases involving the mishandling of classified information or government records. All they had to do was get Combetta in a chair and pressure him to implicate the high-level Clinton surrogates who told him what they wanted done. Several investigators believed “that Combetta’s truthful testimony was essential for assessing criminal intent for Clinton and other individuals, because he would be able to tell them whether Clinton’s attorneys — Mills, Samuelson or Kendall — had instructed him to delete emails,” according to a 2018 report by the DOJ’s inspector general. But during voluntary interviews with FBI agents, Combetta falsely denied he had ”deleted or purged” Clinton’s emails from the server or back-ups, and insisted Clinton’s legal team never requested that he do so. Combetta refused to talk to investigators about the critical March 2015 conference call with Clinton’s lawyers that preceded his purge of evidence, the only topic he refused to speak about. So investigators and prosecutors agreed to give him immunity and interview him again. Still, they never got his account of the conference call. A written FBI summary of the interview, known as an FD-302 report, does not reference the call, indicating that agents failed to follow up on a key line of questioning in the investigation. Investigators declined to pursue other aspects of the case as well. They obtained an email in which Combetta told a colleague he was part of a ”Hilary [sic] coverup operation” and said he would elaborate later at a “party.” Asked about it, Combetta claimed he was just joking; the FBI accepted his explanation and did not appear to follow up with the colleague to learn what they discussed at the party. The FBI also accepted another explanation for why Combetta, using the screen name “stonetear,” sought technical assistance on the Reddit forum on how to “strip out” the email addresses of a “VERY VIP” client from a “a bunch of archived email,” in an apparent reference to Clinton. (After internet sleuths revealed stonetear was a name Combetta used in other forums, he began scrubbing his posts from the web.) An FBI case supervisor told the inspector general that “he believed Combetta should have been charged with false statements for lying multiple times,” according to the IG report, but prosecutors refused to indict him. The FBI also obtained forensic evidence from the server that could establish that Combetta made the deletions, but prosecutors balked at charging him with obstruction. Then-FBI Director James Comey personally agreed with the DOJ decision to give Combetta immunity rather than sweating him in a grand jury box, which typically is done with subjects who are lying, to get them to tell the truth. Comey was forced to defend the deal in an October 2016 conference with FBI supervisors, who were hearing complaints from rank-and-file agents that headquarters handed out immunity deals “like candy” to Clinton witnesses. Comey explained the bureau wasn’t interested in prosecuting a small fish like Combetta, and sought only to massage him for information to “make a case on Hillary Clinton,” even though internal FBI emails reveal Comey already had decided to let Clinton off the hook. He did not explain why the contractor hadn’t been pressured more with threats to bring charges against him for lying to agents, the traditional investigative method for getting such an uncooperative witness to turn. “With respect to Combetta, we found his actions in deleting Clinton’s emails in violation of a congressional subpoena and preservation order and then lying about it to the FBI to be particularly serious,” DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in his report. “We asked the prosecutors why they chose to grant him immunity instead of charging him with obstruction of justice.” One DOJ prosecutor told Horowitz’s investigators they wanted to make Combetta “feel comfortable enough” that he would eventually cooperate on his own. Another said they weren’t interested in prosecuting a bit player for lying and that doing so would just bog down the investigation, which they were rushing to wrap up “well before” the November 2016 presidential election. “I was concerned that we would end up with obstruction cases against some poor schmuck on the down that had a crappy attorney who [was] hiding the ball,” the unidentified prosecutor said. “And so at the end of the day, I was like, look, let’s immunize him. We’ve got to get from Point A to Point B. Point B is to make a prosecution decision about Hillary Clinton and her senior staff well before the election if possible,” the prosecutor added. “And this guy with his dumb attorney doing some half-assed obstruction did not interest me. So I was totally in favor of giving him immunity.” The prosecutors reported directly to then-DOJ counterespionage official David Laufman, who would later play a key role in the discredited Russiagate probe, including opening investigations on several Trump advisers and signing off on wiretap warrants targeting at least one Trump aide, even though he knew they were based on a fabricated dossier financed by the Clinton campaign. Prosecutors also gave Clinton aides Mills and Samuelson immunity deals, over the objections of some FBI investigators who wanted to bring them before a grand jury to explain their actions. A handful of agents also argued for issuing a search warrant to seize their personal laptops, which they used to upload all the emails from the Clinton server and cull away supposedly “personal” messages that they claimed were out of the reach of investigators. Instead, prosecutors opted to review the laptops through an unusual consent agreement, which restricted searches to certain files and specific dates—and nothing before or after Clinton’s tenure as secretary, which put any email exchanges with Combetta out of reach—and required th...

William David “Bill” Scott Obituary (2022) https://digitalalabamanews.com/william-david-bill-scott-obituary-2022/ William David Bill Scott, age 80 of Athens, AL, and Elizabethton, TN, passed away Tuesday September 13, 2022. Bill started his career after his graduation from Florence State where he returned to Lauderdale County High School in Rogersville to restart the band program. In 1969 he moved to Elizabethton, TN, where he served as Band Director at the high school. His career spanned many years in the music field that he loved, from EHS, Virginia Jr. High School, Assistant Professor of Music at ETSU, then back to EHS and the Music Bus he helped to design, where he traveled to the area elementary schools. His bands won numerous awards as well as other band that he arranged and created shows for. He was an avid traveler, always up for a trip, and took beautiful photos. He was an artist, only drawing and painting for pleasure. He loved his family and friends, and although he didn t have any children of his own, there were so many that he considered his own. He is survived by his wife, Linda Thacker Scott; sister, Deborah (Travis) Butler of Florence, AL; god-daughter, Cecile (Adrian) Painter of Asheville, NC, and her parents: Rick and Sandy Simerly of Elizabethton, TN; nephews, Scott (Kim) Miller of Killen, AL, and Brad (Leanna) Miller of Florence, AL; great-nieces, MeLeah (Brandon) Bennett of Dothan, AL, and Reagan Miller of Nashville, TN; great-nephews, Cole and Mason Miller of Florence, AL; bonus children, Scott (Carla) Baggett of Athens, AL, and their children: Reid (Julia) Baggett and Presley Baggett, and Jennifer (Dane) Shull of Huntsville, AL, and their children: Melissa (Jon) Thompson, and Valerie and Keeton Light; and great-grandchildren, Vaelyn, Ames and Tommy. Preceding him in death are his late wife, Doris McGraw Scott of Elizabethton, TN; and his parents, James David “Dave” Scott and Nelle Joanna Park Scott of Rogersville, AL. The committal and entombment service for Mr. Scott will be conducted at 2:00 PM on Saturday, September 17, 2022 in the Mausoleum of Peace at Happy Valley Memorial Park. Those wishing to attend the service are asked at the cemetery at 1:45 PM on Saturday. Words of comfort can be sent to the family through our website, www.tetrickfuneralhome.com. Tetrick Funeral Home-Riverside Chapel, 211 North Riverside, Elizabethton, TN 37643 (423) 542-2232 is honored to serve the family of William David Bill Scott. Published by Tetrick Funeral Home – Elizabethton on Sep. 15, 2022. Read More…

New Director Of Human Resources Joins Alabama ONE – WEIS | Local & Area News, Sports, & Weather https://digitalalabamanews.com/new-director-of-human-resources-joins-alabama-one-weis-local-area-news-sports-weather/ New Director of Human Resources joins Alabama ONE Press Release – For Immediate Release Tuscaloosa, AL: Alabama ONE has appointed Tracy Beam as Director of Human Resources (HR).  Beam, a graduate of Auburn University, joins Alabama ONE with over two decades of all-encompassing HR experience in Finance, Commercial, and Manufacturing industries. Beam possesses the extensive experience and industry passion to lead the HR Department to new heights.As Director of HR, Beam is tasked to oversee all Human Resource activities, also ensuring that personnel functions are uniformly applied.CEO, Bill Wells, shared his enthusiasm for the new hire stating, “We are so very excited to welcome Tracy to the Alabama ONE TEAM.  Tracy’s vast and deep experience handling human resource duties and responsibilities in multiple locations will prove extremely beneficial to Alabama ONE as we build out our statewide franchise.Tracy will help lead our efforts to build and guide our TEAM as we go into new markets to better serve our existing, and new, Members of Alabama ONE.” Equipped for the role, Beam stated, “I bring over 28 years of acquired skills and experience to the Alabama ONE TEAM. My in-depth understanding of Human Resources enables me to align both business and team goals.” Beam assumed her position on September 12 and is “mostly looking forward to serving the Alabama ONE TEAM as well as the wonderful communities throughout our state.” ### About Alabama ONE Alabama ONE Credit Union, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was chartered in 1951 as the TRW Federal Credit Union. Today, Alabama ONE is a $950+ million-dollar, full-service financial institution currently with 18 branches serving more than 75,000 Members throughout Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Mobile, Jefferson and 18 other counties, as well as the employees, trustees, retirees, family members and members of the 23 Alabama rural electric cooperatives. Alabama ONE is now a statewide franchise reaching 57 of the 67 counties in Alabama. Alabama ONE provides a unique offering of consumer and business-related products, as well as wealth management and an in-house insurance agency. Alabama ONE is dedicated to giving Members the resources they need to build the strong financial future they deserve. Federally insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Opportunity. For more information, please visit www.alabamaone.org. Read More…

Biden Says Tentative Railway Labor Deal Has Been Reached, Averting A Strike https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-says-tentative-railway-labor-deal-has-been-reached-averting-a-strike/ Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at the Amtrak Johnstown Train Station, Sept. 30, 2020, in Johnstown, Pa. Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at the Amtrak Johnstown Train Station, Sept. 30, 2020, in Johnstown, Pa. Andrew Harnik/AP A strike that could have halted both freight and passenger trains across the country seems to have been averted. After a marathon negotiating session lasting 20 hours, the White House announced early Thursday that a tentative agreement had been reached between rail companies and the unions representing conductors and engineers. “This agreement is validation – validation of what I’ve always believed. Unions and management can work together, can work together for the benefit of everyone,” President Biden said, calling the deal a win for America and for rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to deliver goods. Union members still have to vote to ratify the agreement before it is finalized. A vote is not expected for at least a couple of weeks. The parties had been negotiating the contract without resolution for several years and were facing a 12:01 am Friday deadline, the end of a “cooling off period.” Biden called in to the talks at 9 p.m. Wednesday night to urge groups to “be flexible, be creative, get a deal done,” an official said. At 2 a.m. Thursday, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh called to announce they had a deal. Already this week, freight rail companies had halted shipments of hazardous materials, including chlorine to water treatment plants and chemicals for fertilizers, not wanting those goods to be left unattended should a strike be called. Amtrak said in a statement it is working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures. Yesterday, Amtrak announced that it was canceling all of its long-distance trains due to the threatened strike. The National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represents the nation’s freight railroads said: “The tentative agreements announced today follow the August 16 recommendations of Presidential Emergency Board…which include a 24% wage increase during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024 — with a 14.1% wage increase effective immediately — and five annual $1,000 lump sum payments.” The deal also includes changes to workplace attendance policies that workers found overly punitive. Under the tentative agreement, workers will be able to take time off for medical care without facing discipline, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the SMART Transportation Division confirmed in a joint statement. Those attendance policies had become the major sticking point as the deadline for a deal neared. In an interview with NPR, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said the proposed deal will bring not just pay increases and quality of life improvements for workers but will help the railroads as well. “It means a way to attract and retain great workers,” Buttigieg said. “It means avoiding the disruptions that could have accompanied any kind of shutdown or or slowdown.” Read More…

Opinion | Nevada’s Tight Senate Race May Turn On Abortion https://digitalalabamanews.com/opinion-nevadas-tight-senate-race-may-turn-on-abortion/ Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) is in a dead heat against Republican Adam Laxalt. But thanks to Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and his proposed nationwide 15-week abortion ban, her path to reelection just got a bit easier. Nevada is certainly a pro-choice state. Cortez Masto in a brief phone interview emphasized that in 1990, about two-thirds of Nevadans voted to codify Roe in state law. “If you were to poll today,” she says, “you’d still see two-thirds. They don’t want Roe repealed.” Last year, 69 percent of Nevada voters identify as pro-choice, an OH Predictive Insights poll found. Cortez Masto’s opponent, by contrast, has been a strong proponent of forced birth. Laxalt celebrated the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision as a “historic victory.” He also has said he would support a state referendum for a 13-week ban on abortion, more restrictive than even Graham’s proposal (although Graham’s bill would allow states to impose even stricter limits). Cortez Masto is quick to point out that when the Dobbs ruling came down, “Republicans said, ‘Let’s send it back to the states.’ ” Nevada has made such a decision, yet Republicans are scheming to supersede it with a national ban. “They don’t support states’ rights,” she says. She adds that there is “no doubt in my mind” that Laxalt would be another Republican to vote for a nationwide ban. “This is the tragedy. They don’t respect women,” she said. Follow Jennifer Rubin’s opinionsFollow Add Though Laxalt previously said he wouldn’t support a national ban, when asked about Graham’s proposal, Laxalt passed up the chance to object to it. Instead, all his spokesman would say is “This proposal has no chance to pass Congress and receive President Biden’s signature. The law in Nevada was settled by voters decades ago and isn’t going to change.” But of course, if Republicans had their way, a new ban would supersede Nevada law. Moreover, Laxalt’s credibility problems aren’t confined to abortion. Biden won Nevada by more than 33,000 votes (2.39 percent) in 2020, but that did not stop Laxalt from peddling the “big lie” that the election was stolen and doing his best to reverse the will of voters. Local media even recognized him as “the face of Trump’s baseless election fraud lawsuits.” The Nevada Independent recently reported, “In a press conference two days after Election Day in 2020, Laxalt and other Trump allies alleged that ‘illegal votes’ had been cast, including from voters who were deceased. However, it was ultimately a Republican man and vocal critic of the state’s election laws, Donald Kirk Hartle, who was charged with voting with his deceased wife’s ballot.” Laxalt didn’t stop there. The Nevada Independent reported, “Laxalt spearheaded a lawsuit in state court alleging that Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s office failed to keep non-citizens off Nevada voter rolls.” The suit was dismissed, and no evidence of fraud was uncovered. Still, Laxalt continued to cast doubt on the election. As late as last September, he “urged a rural county election official to pursue an audit of the 2020 presidential election results, according to an email from that election official sent at the time,” the Nevada Independent reported. Cortez Masto points out that shortly after he announced his candidacy, he was saying he would challenge the results if he lost. In March, the New York Times reported, he was “already laying detailed groundwork to fight election fraud in his race — long before a single vote has been cast or counted.” It’s no wonder Laxalt has been ducking a debate. Cortez Masto tells me, “I think it’s important for Nevada voters to hear from us.” She has offered three debates; Laxalt has been mum. The race might depend on Cortez Masto’s success in revealing that Laxalt is just another MAGA extremist favoring forced-birth laws. That might explain why she is running ads on abortion — both in English and in Spanish. Read More…

ULM Faces Road Test At No. 2/1 Alabama – University Of Louisiana Monroe Athletics https://digitalalabamanews.com/ulm-faces-road-test-at-no-2-1-alabama-university-of-louisiana-monroe-athletics/ Game 3: ULM (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) at No. 2/1 Alabama (2-0, 0-0 SEC) Saturday, Sept. 17 | 3:01 p.m. CT Bryant-Denny Stadium (100,077) | Tuscaloosa, Ala. SEC Network | KLIP 105.3 FM   2022 ULM Football Notes: Game 3 vs. Alabama   Alabama Gameday Information Coach Bowden Weekly Press Conference FIRST-AND-10 – • ULM heads on the road Saturday to face off with No. 2/1 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa for one more non-conference tune-up prior to Sun Belt Conference play. The Warhawks are coming off a 35-7 win over Nicholls on Saturday in the home opener at Malone Stadium, while the Crimson Tide rallied to defeat Texas 20-19, in Austin, to move to 2-0.   • Saturday’s game marks the fourth all-time meeting between ULM and Alabama. The Crimson Tide leads the series, 2-1. Alabama shut out ULM in the last meeting, 34-0, on Sept. 26, 2015.   • ULM’s 21-14 win over Alabama on Nov. 17, 2007, in Tuscaloosa is one of the biggest victories in program history. Warhawk cornerback Quintez Secka intercepted Crimson Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson twice, while running back Calvin Dawson ran for 91 yards on 33 carries and Kinsmon Lancaster threw a touchdown pass. The ULM defense shut out the Alabama offense in the second half.   • The Warhawks have compiled a 4-49-1 record (.083) against current members of the Southeastern Conference. ULM’s last win over an SEC opponent came in the 2012 season opener against No. 8 Arkansas in Little Rock, 34-31, in overtime.   • ULM’s 2022 roster features four players from the state of Alabama: junior linebacker Quae Drake (Wadley), junior running back Malik Jackson (Opelika/Lufkin (Texas) HS), red-shirt freshman safety Jalen Vinson (Red Bay) and super senior linebacker Zack Woodard (Thomasville).   • Sophomore quarterback Chandler Rogers accounted for 308 yards total offense and three touchdowns in leading ULM to a 35-7 win over Nicholls in the Warhawks’ home opener. Rogers recorded his first 200-yard passing game of the season and fifth of his career, completing 20-of-25 throws for 253 yards and two scores. He completed passes to 10 different receivers, including TD strikes of 4 yards to Zach Rasmussen and 18 yards to Jevin Frett. Rogers added 55 rushing yards on eight carries, including a 9-yard TD run around left end early in the fourth quarter.   After a slow start, ULM took control of the game as Rogers directed TD drives on four of five possessions, including three straight during one stretch.   • Fifth-year senior wide receiver Jevin Frett set career highs with six receptions and 71 receiving yards in Saturday’s 35-7 win over Nicholls. He had a long reception of 23 yards and caught an 18-yard TD pass from Chandler Rogers in the third quarter to extend ULM’s lead to 28-7. He leads the team with 10 catches for 132 yards and one TD through two weeks. The Manchester, Connecticut, native has played in 22 games at ULM with 39 receptions for 634 yards (16.3 yards per catch) and three TDs.   • Sophomore linebacker Tristan Driggers recorded a team-high eight tackles, including one for a 5-yard loss, and intercepted a pass in ULM’s 35-7 victory over Nicholls in the Warhawks’ home opener.    On a third-and-3 play late in the second quarter, Driggers intercepted Kohen Granier‘s pass attempt and returned it 10 yards to the Nicholls’ 33-yard line. His pick set up ULM’s go-ahead score as Malik Jackson scored three plays later on an 8-yard run for a 14-7 lead. It marked Driggers’ second-straight game with an interception as he also came up with one in the first half in the season opener at Texas.   The Warhawk defense pitched a shutout over the last three quarters and allowed only 198 total yards during that stretch.   • Fifth-year senior Devyn McCormick was named Louisiana Sports Writers Association Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday. He averaged 44.0 yards on five punts, including three kicks down inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, in ULM’s 35-7 win over Nicholls. McCormick launched a season-long 55-yard punt in the first quarter.   • Super senior placekicker Calum Sutherland remained perfect on the season, knocking through all five of his extra points in Saturday’s win over Nicholls. He opened his 2022 season by hitting his only field-goal attempt of the night, a 25-yard attempt, in the first quarter to cut the deficit to 7-3 at Texas on Sept. 3. He also connected on his only PAT attempt, which came in the fourth quarter.   A Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference Second-Team selection, Sutherland led ULM in scoring with 75 points in 2021 – tied for the ninth-highest single-season total in program history. The Keller, Texas, product ranked third in the Sun Belt and 42nd in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision with 1.33 field goals made per game. He also finished eighth in the league in scoring, averaging 6.25 points per game.   Sutherland hit 16-of-21 field-goal attempts (.762) and 27-of-28 extra-point tries in 2021. His 16 field goals made tied the third-best single-season total in ULM history. He made 8-of-12 field-goal attempts from 40 or more yards, including 2-of-4 from 50 plus. Sutherland connected on the two longest field goals (53 and 52 yards) in the Sun Belt during the 2021 season.   2022 STAT LEADERS – ULM Rushing – Malik Jackson (21 carries for 74 yards, 3.5 avg., 1 TD) Passing – Chandler Rogers (34 of 44, 77.3%, for 361 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) Receiving – Jevin Frett (10 catches for 132 yards, 13.2 avg., 1 TD) Tackles – Tristan Driggers (11 tackles, seven solos, four assists, 1 TFL, 2 INT)   ALABAMA Rushing – Bryce Young (12 carries for 138 yards, 11.5 avg., 1 TD) Passing – Bryce Young (45 of 67, 67.2%, for 408 yards, 6 TDs) Receiving – Traeshon Holden (9 catches for 109 yards, 12.1 avg., 2 TDs) Tackles – Jaylen Moody (16 tackles, eight solos, eight assists, 2 TFLs, 1 sack, 1 QB hurry)   ULM/ALABAMA SERIES NOTES – Saturday’s game marks the fourth all-time meeting between ULM and Alabama. The Crimson Tide leads the series, 2-1. Alabama shut out ULM in the last meeting, 34-0, on Sept. 26, 2015.   ULM’s 21-14 win over Alabama on Nov. 17, 2007, in Tuscaloosa is one of the biggest victories in program history. Warhawk cornerback Quintez Secka intercepted Crimson Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson twice, while running back Calvin Dawson ran for 91 yards on 33 carries and Kinsmon Lancaster threw a touchdown pass. The ULM defense shut out the Alabama offense in the second half.   THE LAST MEETING – Alabama 34, ULM 0 (Sept. 26, 2015 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama): Alabama limited ULM to just 92 yards of total offense while the Crimson Tide pulled away in the second half to pick up the 34-0 win at Bryant-Denny Stadium.   Alabama opened the scoring late in the first quarter when Derrick Henry capped an 11-play, 55-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run, putting the Crimson Tide up, 7-0.   A bad snap on a punt set up the Tide at the ULM 15-yard line early in the second quarter. Alabama added to its lead on the next play, as Jake Coker hit Calvin Ridley for a 15-yard TD pass, doubling Alabama’s lead to 14-0.   The Warhawk defense kept the Crimson Tide in check for the rest of the half. Tre’ Hunter intercepted a pass to quickly end Alabama’s next drive at midfield, but the Warhawk offense was stifled again.   ULM crossed midfield for the first time late in the first half, thanks to a personal foul penalty on a 4-yard pass from Garrett Smith to Kaylon Watson. However, the Warhawks never progressed past Alabama’s 40-yard line, turning the ball over on downs. Alabama led 14-0 at halftime. Alabama added to its lead early in the third quarter when Adam Griffith connected on a 40-yard field-goal attempt, extending the lead to 17-0.   On the next Crimson Tide possession, Coker found Michael Nysewander for a 19-yard TD pass, pushing the Alabama lead to 24-0.   The Tide added another Griffith field goal, this time from 35 yards out, to take a 27-0 lead early in the fourth quarter.   On the next ULM possession, Smith’s pass was intercepted by Ronnie Harrison and returned to the Warhawk 19-yard line. Two plays later, Coker hit Ardarius Stewart for a 16-yard TD pass, completing the final margin at 34-0.   Coker threw for 158 yards and three TDs, while Kenyan Drake led Alabama’s rushing attack with 10 carries for 65 yards.   Smith was 17-of-37 passing for 74 yards and two interceptions for ULM. Ajalen Holley caught nine passes for 38 yards in the loss.   ULM STUNS TIDE IN 2007 – ULM 21, Alabama 14 (Nov. 17, 2007, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama) Courtesy Paul Letlow and The News-Star: ULM coach Charlie Weatherbie beat Alabama’s Nick Saban head-to-head at Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday in a shocking 21-14 upset by the Warhawks.   “That’s the biggest win of my head coaching career,” Weatherbie said. “To beat Alabama in their back yard is great for our program, great for ULM, the whole city and the whole conference.”   ULM held Alabama scoreless in the second half and made three huge plays in the final five minutes.   The Warhawks (5-6) recovered an Alabama fumble with 4:41 to go at the ULM 14-yard line to dodge one threat. Then on fourth-and-1 with 2:01 remaining, ULM’s Darrius Battles made the stop to force a turnover on downs. Finally with 34 seconds to go, James Truxillo broke up a fourth-down pass to clinch the historic win.   ULM running back Calvin Dawson ran for 91 yards on 33 attempts to key the effort in front of 92,000 stunned fans. A smattering of boos rained down at the end.   ULM warned the Alabama crowd by playing the Crimson Tide to a 14-14 halftime tie. Alabama (6-5) made three first-half turnovers including two interceptions by ULM cornerback Quintez Secka. The Warhawks didn’t have a first-half turnover.   Alabama’s dis...

U.S. Railroad Strike Averted; Biden Calls Deal A 'win For America' https://digitalalabamanews.com/u-s-railroad-strike-averted-biden-calls-deal-a-win-for-america/ WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Major U.S. railroads and unions secured a tentative deal on Thursday after 20 hours of intense talks brokered by President Joe Biden’s administration to avert a rail shutdown that could have hit food and fuel supplies across the country and beyond. Biden called the deal a “big win for America” and for tens of thousands of rail workers. Thanking business and labor, the Democratic president promised more worker-company agreements in the future. “I’m optimistic that we can do this in other fields as well,” Biden said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “Unions and management can work together for the benefit of everyone,” Biden added. If they accept the deal that was announced at about 5 a.m. (0900 GMT), workers whose pay had been frozen will win double-digit increases and will be allowed to seek certain types of medical care without fear of being punished, union leaders said. The agreement includes an immediate 14.1% wage rise, the railroads said. Unions, whose members bitterly rejected prior proposals, will now vote on the agreement. Even if those votes fail, a rail strike that could have happened as soon as a minute past midnight on Friday has been averted for several weeks due to the standard language included in such a deal, a person familiar with the negotiations said. Biden’s Labor Secretary Marty Walsh hosted contract talks in Washington that ran for 20 consecutive hours between unions representing 115,000 workers and railroads including Union Pacific (UNP.N), BNSF, CSX (CSX.O), Norfolk Southern (NSC.N) and Kansas City Southern . Officials are expected to host a news briefing later on Thursday. Failing to reach a deal before the deadline would have cleared the way for workers to legally strike. A rail shutdown could have frozen almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments by weight, stoked inflation, cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion per day and unleashed a cascade of transport woes affecting the U.S. energy, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and retail sectors. Railroad shares pared initial pre-market gains after mixed economic data, with Union Pacific up 2.2% in mid-day trading and CSX down 2.0%. read more U.S. natural gas futures dropped about 9% after soaring 10% in the prior session; oil futures fell about 4% to a one-week low. Diesel and gasoline futures also fell. , read more Investors expected that a rail strike would have threatened coal supplies to power plants and boost demand for rival energy sources. read more U.S. President Joe Biden grabs onto Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as he greets negotiators who brokered the railway labor agreement after U.S. railroads and unions secured a tentative deal to avert a rail shutdown, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 15, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Amtrak, which runs passenger rail, said it will resume normal service on Friday after cancelling long-distance trains in anticipation of a strike. read more The impact of a shutdown would have stretched beyond U.S. borders because trains link the United States to Canada and Mexico and provide vital connections to massive ships that ferry goods from around the globe. Negotiations between the companies and a dozen unions had stretched for more than two years, leading Biden to appoint an emergency board in July to help break the impasse. Biden personally called Walsh and negotiators on Wednesday evening to prod them toward a deal, telling them “once again to recognize the harm” that a shutdown would have on families, farmers and businesses, according to a person aware of the negotiations. National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay thanked Biden’s administration for intervening, adding in a statement that his group is “relieved and cautiously optimistic.” Emily Skor, CEO of the biofuel trade group Growth Energy, also praised the deal and noted that much of the country’s ethanol moves by rail. Freight railroads had halted transportation of hazardous goods, including chlorine for water purification and ammonia for fertilizer, as well as shipments of refrigerated food and other goods that use rail and at least one other mode of transport. Their goal was to prevent cargo from being stranded in unsafe locations. JOB CUTS The railroad industry slashed almost 30% of its workforce over the last six years, cutting pay and other costs as they increased profits, stock buybacks and dividends for investors. Profits at billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, (BRKa.N) which owns BNSF, rose 9.2% in the most recent quarter to $1.7 billion. The number of U.S. railway workers has dropped from over 600,000 in 1970 to about 150,000 in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, due technology and cost-cutting. The result is that many industry workers are on call at all hours, waiting to respond at short notice to work for days at a time. The latest deal follows some earlier recommendations of the president’s emergency mediators. It includes a 24% percent wage increase over a five-year period from 2020 through 2024 as well$1,000 lump sum payments in each of five years. Biden, who has called himself the most union-friendly president in history and attacked companies for raking in “excessive” profits, praised a deal he said would give workers “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs.” The president is not yet out of the woods when it comes to supply-chain labor issues. Some 22,000 union workers at 29 West Coast ports that handle almost 40% of U.S. imports are also in high-stakes labor contract negotiations. Administration officials wanted the disputes resolved ahead of November’s midterm elections that will determine whether Biden’s fellow Democrats retain control of Congress. Senior congressional leaders had threatened to pass legislation imposing a resolution on the railroads and unions if the negotiations were not successful. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the tentative agreement and said that Congress was “ready to act” but that “thankfully this action may not be necessary.” Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Steve Holland, David Shepardson and Susan Heavey in Washington, Stephanie Kelly in New York, Jahnavi Nidumolu, Aishwarya Nair, Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru; Editing by Heather Timmons and Catherine Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

Big Central Conference Football Scoreboard, Complete Coverage: Week 3 https://digitalalabamanews.com/big-central-conference-football-scoreboard-complete-coverage-week-3/ Another stellar weekend of football is set for the Big Central Conference as Week 3 gets underway Thursday night A full schedule of games can be found below. Final scores of those contests, as well as links to stories and other coverage will be updated on this page throughout the weekend. MyCentralJersey.com’s team of photographers and reporters will be staffing multiple games this weekend and providing complete coverage of all this weekend’s action. Week 1 live coverage plan: THURSDAY, SEPT. 15 Reporter Harry Frezza is at Watchung Hills, as the upstart Warriors play host to Morris Knolls. He has live updates on Twitter @TheFrez56 FRIDAY, SEPT. 16 Beatwriter Andy Mendlowitz as the Game of the Week, as Edison heads to Sayreville. He’s on Twitter @Andy_Mendlowitz Reporter Donovan Hugel’s got the coverage of Somerville’s game at Montgomery. He’s on Twitter @DonoHugel Reporter Harry Frezza heads to Hillsborough, as Ridge comes in for a key American Silver contest. He has live updates on Twitter @TheFrez56 SATURDAY, SEPT. 17 Beatwriter Andy Mendlowitz has live coverage of Bound Brook’s trek to South River. He’s on Twitter @Andy_Mendlowitz Also, correspondent Marcus Borden will provide live updates, in-game video highlights and postgame interviews from Friday’s Montgomery/Somerville game, and Saturday’s Bound Brook/South River tilt. Follow him on Twitter @bordenfb4ever In addition, our staff will provide full write-ups of every other game in the Big Central Conference and our local independent teams in our weekly roundup Please consider subscribing to MyCentralJersey.com. Great subscriptions offers are available now! ADDITIONAL COVERAGE For insight and analysis into this week’s contests, check out our picks column from Courier News football beat writer Simeon Pincus and Home News Tribune football beat writer Andy Mendlowitz. Also, check this week’s team rankings for the Big Central Football Conference Top 15 Stay with MyCentralJersey.com throughout the year for the most comprehensive coverage of the Big Central Football Conference. WEEK 3 SCHEDULE AND SCOREBOARD Thursday, Sept. 15 Belvidere at Dunellen, 6 p.m. Manville at Dayton, 6 p.m. Morris Knolls at Watchung Hills, 6 p.m. Roselle Park at Brearley, 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16 Governor Livingston at J.P. Stevens, 6 p.m. J.F. Kennedy at Perth Amboy, 6 p.m. Linden at Colonia, 6 p.m. Monroe at Piscataway, 6 p.m. Summit at St. Thomas Aquinas, 6 p.m. Bernards at Voorhees, 7 p.m. Bridgewater-Raritan at Hunterdon Central, 7 p.m. Cranford at Woodbridge, 7 p.m. Edison at Sayreville, 7 p.m. Franklin at New Brunswick, 7 p.m. Metuchen at A.L. Johnson, 7 p.m. Middlesex at South Hunterdon, 7 p.m. New Providence at Delaware Valley, 7 p.m. North Hunterdon at Phillipsburg, 7 p.m. Old Bridge at North Brunswick, 7 p.m. Plainfield at Carteret, 7 p.m. Rahway at Scotch Plains-Fanwood, 7 p.m. Ridge at Hillsborough, 7 p.m. Somerville at Montgomery, 7 p.m. South Brunswick at East Brunswick, 7 p.m. South Plainfield at North Plainfield, 7 p.m. Spotswood at Highland Park, 7 p.m. St. Joseph-Met. at Union, 7 p.m. Westfield at Elizabeth, 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 Bound Brook at South River, 1 p.m. Roselle at Hillside, 1 p.m. Read More…

Trump Warns Of ‘big Problems’ If Indicted, Says He’d Still Run For Office https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-warns-of-big-problems-if-indicted-says-hed-still-run-for-office/ Former president Donald Trump warned that if he were indicted on a charge of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, there would be “problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.” Trump, speaking Thursday to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, added, “I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.” Hewitt, who is also a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, then noted that critics would describe the comment as inciting violence, and he asked Trump to respond to the claim. “That’s not inciting — I’m just saying what my opinion is. I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it,” Trump said. When pressed by Hewitt, Trump said he thought there would be “Big problems. Big problems.” Federal agents conducted a court-authorized search of Trump’s club and residence on Aug. 8, as part of a long-running investigation into whether government documents — some of which are classified — were being stored at Mar-a-Lago instead of returned to the National Archives. The FBI probe is the latest legal pressure on Trump, who now faces growing scrutiny as the criminal probe intensifies. The investigation is looking into whether he or his former aides took classified government documents and improperly stored or never returned them. Trump’s lawyer has argued that the former president cooperated with federal authorities and that many of the documents were covered by executive privilege. In January 2021, the House impeached Trump on a single charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in whipping up a crowd of his supporters to stop Congress from the counting of electoral college votes for Joe Biden. A mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the count in the transfer of power, an attack that resulted in five dead and injuries to dozens of members of law enforcement. In the interview with Hewitt, Trump also said he “would have no prohibition against running” for office if he were indicted. “It would not take you out of the arena,” Hewitt said, trying to clarify the former president’s position. Trump replied, “It would not.” In 1920, socialist Eugene V. Debs ran for president from prison, where he was serving time in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for speaking out against the draft during World War I. Debs and his running mate, Emil Seidel, garnered 913,693 votes, but — as in his previous campaigns — no electoral votes. Trump’s warning of problems echoes Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who told Fox News last month there would be “riots in the street” if Trump is prosecuted. Trump appeared to endorse the notion, sharing a link to a video of Graham’s comments on his Truth Social platform. Read More…

Less Government, Not More https://digitalalabamanews.com/less-government-not-more/ Dear President Biden,  Sir, I decided to record your speech from last Thursday night (01 Sep 2022) and after reviewing it, I was really disappointed in your talk. I thought you were going to discuss more about your accomplishments and what the future holds? I was looking forward to a positive message of hope but found that your talk was very inappropriate and decisive as our president and really nothing more than a campaign speech. Everyone is so polarized now, and this speech did not bring anyone together. You blame republicans and former President Trump. Do I have to remind you that Trump has been out of office for almost 20 months? I am tired of hearing about Trump all the time now.  I consider myself to be a Make America Great Again (a MAGA) believer. Yet, I am registered as a democrat. What gives you the right to tell me that I am off center? Do you not understand that many Americans have some common goals, themes, and objectives no matter what party or even with no party voting? For some things, I believe to let a woman make her own choices, I do not believe that the election was stolen, I am for the protection of our planet and the environment, I think violence is usually ridiculous to make a point, and I also believe that richer people need to pay more in taxes (perhaps solved without so many deductions being given).  You campaigned on bringing the people of this country together, however, you have torn this country apart more than any other president during my four-decades of voting. What good have you really done during your time in office? You and your staff lost billions of dollars in equipment with a failed pull-out from Afghanistan, including support members left behind and military deaths. You are forgiving some student loans, yet have failed most of our population who did not take-out student loans, paid them off, or did not even go to college. You sent all kinds of funds and support to protect the Ukrainian border but fail to protect our own southern border; you even dragged your feet in providing Ukraine with the proper funding and equipment to win their war, if that was the goal, and now spend more and more money there often. You provide funds to help out other counties and their people while so many Americans are needing help. You approved bills with all kinds of pork in them, like the recent one that has 87,000 new IRS agents. Yet, the money or federal personal buildup should have been spread around instead, especially with agencies that help and protect the people and resources of our country. Bills filled with so much spending and pork that you should have vetoed them and returned to Congress. Overall, I believe in less government, not more. You and your agencies gave out so much money during the pandemic without the proper oversight and subsequently with massive fraud or funds not being used as intended. You have selected and appointed people who are not always the best candidates and in doing so violated mandated Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) that all other federal offices have to follow. Inflation goes rampant in our country, and you tell us that things are looking better? I surely do not believe that. But still, you and your cabinet members are spending money like there is no tomorrow. And when you, your staff members, and press secretary are asked how everything will be paid for, all I hear is that taxing businesses will help businesses who will certainly pass on any higher tax increases to consumers. You cutoff or hinder natural gas, oil, coal, and even fertilizer production, with so many of those workers losing their jobs, yet all the time I see that you and all your support personal are not flying around in electric aircraft or even using any electric vehicles. You and your administration travel around all over this country and world-wide in aircraft and other vehicles that add tons of carbon to our atmosphere, but you tell us that electric cars are needed to reduce carbon concerns. Sort of hypocritical, isn’t this? Stay at the White House more and from there hold news conferences and answer questions from the press instead of running all over the country to make speeches. You vacation or head to your Delaware home so often that I wonder who is even running our country at times? Our stock market crashes, retirees IRAs fail, inflation takes such a toll, energy costs go nuts and now billions of our dollars will be sent overseas in purchasing replacement energy supplies, health care costs continue to rise much more than the inflation rate, supply chain issues continue to cause problems, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants pour into this country monthly, dangerous drug importation and law enforcement problems run rampant. Thousands upon thousands of people with be killed or negatively affected by too much or too little water and you concentrate your efforts on guns? Stick around Washington and try to fix some of this, working with your staff and Congress.  Yet again, you give speeches like this one the other night without ever answering questions. All I see is you walking away afterwards. So again, I have to ask what good have you really done for this country? I, one of many, had some hope that you would become our unifier and chief, but believe that this will no longer happen, and now realize that you will always blame others. Yes, call me a MAGA believer, and because of this that I am a fascist (I am looking for a hat or shirt now with MAGA embossed on it). Why do you consider MAGA a new four-letter word? Is it because that term was associated with Trump who accomplished some things?  It is just too bad that you and your speech writers do not understand that a part of fascism is the forcible suppression of opposition. This fascism reminds me of what you, your staff, and other agencies are now doing with MAGA believers, with Trump and his hard-core supporters, and now even with moderate republican supporters. While I do not believe that I have become a fascist, it appears to me that you are becoming a dictator. I really have hopes that Trump does not run again and instead some other new, younger candidate will take his place but whomever it is, your actions, failures, and inactions, and that coming from most of your cabinet staff, and with the inability of Congress to find problem resolutions will force me to vote the republican or independent ticket for our next president, especially after a really anticipated presidential speech like this one was last Thursday night. I always have voted for the person and the issues instead, but after I heard that speech you gave and with our continued Congressional failures, I no longer believe that I will ever vote for a democrat again at least in any national election, or if do, I will be very, very hesitant. Randy Long Ellington, MO Read More…

Mortgage Rates Surpass 6 Percent For The First Time Since 2008 https://digitalalabamanews.com/mortgage-rates-surpass-6-percent-for-the-first-time-since-2008/ Mortgage rates shot above 6 percent this week for the first time in 14 years as inflation has remained resistant to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tamp it down. The dramatically swift escalation has chilled what had been a hot U.S. housing market, increasing pressure on an economy plagued by unremitting inflation. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — the most popular home loan product — soared to 6.02 percent this week, nearly double what it was nine months ago, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac. It has not been this high since November 2008. The jump came as inflation data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this week showed consumer prices accelerating in August, particularly for items such as housing and food. The consumer price index had housing costs up 0.7 percent in August and 6.2 percent higher annually, the largest increase since 1990. “Mortgage rates have gone up four weeks in a row because of investors’ concerns about inflation,” said Holden Lewis, home and mortgage expert at NerdWallet. “Their worries are warranted, as we learned this week that inflation ran hotter than expected in August, as reflected in the consumer price index. That news boosted mortgage rates higher — a phenomenon that will be reflected in next week’s rates.” The 30-year fixed average began the year at 3.22 percent. After soaring to 5.81 percent in late June, it eased in July and early August as fears of a recession took hold. But since falling to 5.13 percent on Aug. 18, the 30-year fixed average has climbed nearly a percentage point in a month. Rates are still below the historical average of 7.8 percent, according to Freddie Mac. The sudden spike in rates this year has made homes less affordable and cooled sales. Prices have begun to moderate but remain elevated. The most recent Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index showed prices up 18 percent annually in June, down from 19.9 percent the previous month. Home sales fell in July for the sixth month in a row. Housing starts, a measure of new home construction, also sank that month. “Mortgage rates at or above 6 percent is likely the new reality and prices will have to adjust,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist with Bright MLS, the area’s multiple-listing service. “Relatively strong demand and still-low inventory will continue to support stable or growing prices in most markets, but gone are the days of seeing offers tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price. In some places, particularly high-cost markets and places where prices have grown fastest over the past two years, we could see year-over-year price declines.” Demand for mortgages has fallen as swiftly as rates have risen. Total application volume fell for the fifth week in a row, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinances are off 83 percent from where they were a year ago. “With all eyes on the Federal Reserve’s next steps to tame high inflation, borrowers can expect continued volatility in mortgage rates,” Bob Broeksmit, MBA’s president and chief executive, wrote in an email. Home affordability fell to a new low for first-time buyers in the second quarter, according to a recent analysis of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas by NerdWallet. Even though more homes came on the market, higher prices and stagnant wages kept buyers on the sidelines. NerdWallet found that homes were listed for sale at 6.5 times the typical first-time buyer’s income across 50 U.S. metros, and 6.6 times their income across the nation. The recommended standard for first-time buyers is three times their income. August’s inflation reading surprised investors, who are wondering whether the Federal Reserve will consider lifting its benchmark rate by 100 basis points, rather than 75 basis points as it did in July. (A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.) The Fed’s rate-setting committee meets next week. In an effort to tamp down inflation, the central bank has raised the federal funds rate four times this year. It started with a 25-basis point increase in March, followed by a 50-basis point increase in May and back-to-back 75-basis point hikes in June and July. The Fed will probably want to see signs inflation is abating before it pulls back on raising rates. “The Federal Reserve was already going to increase short-term rates next week in its effort to restrain inflation,” Lewis said. “They might dial up the aggressiveness in response to this week’s unexpectedly high inflation report, further propelling mortgage rates upward.” When investors are worried about inflation, their appetite for buying bonds diminishes because the return on their investment is less when inflation is high. Inflation erodes the value of a bond’s future payments. Less demand causes bond prices to drop and yields to rise. Since mortgage rates tend to follow the same path as the 10-year Treasury yield, they rise, too. The yield on the 10-year Treasury popped back up to 3.42 percent on Tuesday before slipping to 3.41 percent on Wednesday, its highest level since mid-June. “The higher-than-expected CPI gave the Fed the permission to push forward with their 0.75 percentage point increase with some economists suggesting even a one percentage point increase would be viable,” said Nicole Rueth, producing branch manager at the Rueth Team. “Mortgage rates have already baked in this move with the jump we saw over the last two days.” Mortgage rates might not have peaked yet, Rueth said. “Comparative inflation from a year ago still has us replacing a very low inflation in September 2021,” she said. “With today’s inflationary pressures … we could see September’s CPI — released early Oct — still higher. October 2021’s inflation started the trend higher, so year-over-year comparisons will give us some relief. As inflation comes down, so will mortgage rates.” correction A previous version of this story said the consumer price index of housing costs experienced its largest increase since 1991. It is the biggest increase since 1990. Read More…

19-Year-Old Autistic Student On Way To School Bus Injured In Helena Hit-And-Run https://digitalalabamanews.com/19-year-old-autistic-student-on-way-to-school-bus-injured-in-helena-hit-and-run/ News Published: Sep. 15, 2022, 11:16 a.m. A 19-year-old autistic student on her way to school in Shelby County was hospitalized Thursday after she was injured in a hit-a-run while she was walking to catch a bus. The crash happened at just after 7 a.m. on Stonecreek Drive in the Old Cahaba neighborhood, according to Helena police. David Hart said his daughter is a high school graduate who now attends Falcon Flight at the University of Montevallo. The program is designed to teach functional life skills and entry-level work skills to special education students and to support their growth into adulthood. She takes the bus from Helena to the University of Montevallo. Helena police Chief Brad Flynn said officers and fire medics transported the student to hospital. She is still undergoing examination at UAB Hospital. “She has a broken collarbone and they’re checking for internal injuries,’’ Hart said. “She’s scraped up really bad, so I guess she got dragged a little bit.” The driver was not on the scene when first responders arrived. Flynn said they were able to make contact with him a short time later and take him into custody. Jeremy Shaw, 38, of Helena, is charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. Shaw told police he stopped, and the victim told him she was OK, so he left. “You have a lawful obligation to notify law enforcement when you’re in an accident like that,’’ Flynn said. “It’s just a stupid mistake and he’s going to have to face the consequences.” Hart said he was already at the hospital with another family member when his daughter arrived, so he met his wife and his daughter at the emergency room. “She’s scared, she’s shaken up,’’ Hart said. “She’s never been in an accident before.” Hart owns Life Saver Pool Fence of Birmingham, a company dedicated to keeping children safe. “I have my own child safety company,’’ he said. “I understand accidents, that’s why they’re called accidents. But I would just like to know who would do that to someone and just flee.” Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

2 Busloads Of Migrants Dropped Off Near VP Harris’ Residence – Wilmington News Journal https://digitalalabamanews.com/2-busloads-of-migrants-dropped-off-near-vp-harris-residence-wilmington-news-journal/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Two buses of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border were dropped off near Vice President Kamala Harris’ home in residential Washington on Thursday morning in the bitter political battle over the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been busing migrants out of Texas to cities with Democratic mayors as part of a political strategy this year because he claims there are too many arrivals over the border to his state. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also has adopted this policy, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also got in on the act recently. It was first dreamed up by former President Donald Trump. Abbott tweeted that he’d sent the buses that arrived Thursday: “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border.” About two dozen men and women stood outside the U.S. Naval Observatory at dawn, clutching clear plastic bags of their belongings carried with them over the border, before moving to a nearby church. Harris’ office had no immediate comment. After migrants seeking asylum cross the U.S.-Mexico border, they spend time in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility along the border until they are generally released into the U.S. to wait out their cases. Republicans say Biden’s policies encourage migrants to vanish into the U.S.; Democrats argue the Trump-era policy of forcing migrants to wait out their asylum cases in Mexico was inhumane. DeSantis flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. And last week, Abbott sent about 75 migrants to Chicago. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency last week over the continued arrival of buses of migrants. The district earlier requested National Guard assistance to help stem a “growing humanitarian crisis” prompted by the arrival of thousands of migrants, but the Pentagon rejected the request. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage on immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration. Read More…

Paul Gosar Says ‘Destroy The FBI’ Rhetoric Is Just A Way To ‘Catch People’s Attention’ https://digitalalabamanews.com/paul-gosar-says-destroy-the-fbi-rhetoric-is-just-a-way-to-catch-peoples-attention/ WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) suggested this week that he doesn’t really want to destroy the FBI, contrary to what he keeps saying on Twitter. “Well, you know, you catch people’s attention that way,” Gosar said of his tweets in a brief interview with HuffPost on Wednesday. In response to the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, last month, many Republicans criticized federal law enforcement, but none went as far as Gosar. “We must destroy the FBI. We must save America,” he tweeted on Aug. 8, soon after Trump disclosed that the FBI had searched his property. “I stand with Donald J. Trump.” Just three days later, an armed Trump supporter tried to breach an FBI building in Ohio, ultimately dying in a shootout with police. Even some of Gosar’s fellow Republicans have suggested that language like Gosar’s went too far. On Aug. 12, Republicans on the House intelligence committee called a press conference to criticize the FBI, but Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the committee’s top Republican, suggested that calls to defund or destroy the FBI were out of bounds. “We support our men and women in uniform who are in law enforcement and we request that anybody who has made outrageous statements like that, that you question them and not us,” Turner said. However, Turner and the other Republicans at that press conference spent very little time talking about the troubling incident at the FBI building in Ohio that had happened the day before. They devoted far more time to talking about the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a congressional baseball practice and the Hillary Clinton email controversy. By the time of the Mar-a-Lago raid, the National Archives had already said that Trump kept official documents that he was legally required to turn over to the Archives at the end of his term. And the Justice Department has since said in court that Trump may have obstructed investigators by moving material and intentionally misleading them about what remained. But Gosar hasn’t let up. Last week, for instance, he tweeted a call to “Dismantle and Eliminate the FBI” in response to Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s unconfirmed claim that the FBI had raided the homes of dozens of Trump allies. (The New York Times reported this week that the Justice Department has sent out more than 40 subpoenas related to its investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.) On Wednesday, when HuffPost asked what he meant about destroying or eliminating the FBI, Gosar said he just wants people to be “held accountable” and that he wants “new blood in the FBI,” as in new personnel. And he suggested that Congress would achieve the changes through its regular spending prerogatives. “I think the power of the purse will show its way,” Gosar said. When asked whether he was talking about “much less sweeping reform” than actually eliminating the FBI, Gosar said he was trying to “catch people’s attention” with the more bombastic rhetoric. But Gosar and other Republicans could be playing with fire, as the FBI has said its agents have received an unprecedented wave of threats in the days following the Mar-a-Lago search. On Aug. 15, days after the Trump supporter in Ohio tried to storm an FBI building and was killed, the bureau arrested another Trump supporter for threatening to kill FBI agents. Gosar said, essentially, that the FBI is asking for it. “What’s the FBI doing showing up at everybody’s house as well?” he said, in an apparent reference to Bannon’s claim of mass raids. “Coming from the West, the West was won, you know, not by the FBI.” HuffPost at this point suggested that Gosar’s meaning wasn’t entirely clear. “It’s about the equal application of the law,” he said. Read More…

Trump Warns Of 'problems' Like 'we've Never Seen' If He's Indicted https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-warns-of-problems-like-weve-never-seen-if-hes-indicted/ Hewitt asked Trump what he meant by “problems.” “I think they’d have big problems. Big problems. I just don’t think they’d stand for it. They will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes,” Trump said. It’s not the first time Republicans have hinted at potential civil unrest if the DOJ indicts Trump. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham made headlines last month when he said there would be “riots in the street” if “there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information.” Graham’s comments were slammed as “irresponsible” and “shameful.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, without naming the South Carolina senator, said these comments from “extreme Republicans” were “dangerous.” Hewitt appeared to see Trump’s comments as a nod toward potential unrest, asking the former president how he would respond when the “legacy media” accuses him of inciting violence. “That’s not inciting. I’m just saying what my opinion is,” Trump said. “I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it.” The FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida sparked a political firestorm last month. According to a Justice Department court filing released in August, prosecutors obtained a search warrant for the estate after receiving evidence there was “likely” an effort to conceal classified documents at the residence in defiance of a grand jury subpoena. Agents recovered highly classified records mixed among personal items, in addition to dozens of empty folders with classified markings. The DOJ and Trump’s lawyers are now in the midst of legal deliberations on an outside review of the seized documents. Speaking with Hewitt on Thursday, Trump continued to use the defense that he “declassified” everything he took to Mar-a-Lago, a claim his legal team has thus far declined to make in court. Rhetoric that could be seen as alluding to violence is not out of character for Trump. In his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, to supporters before rioters stormed the Capitol in an effort to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, the then-president told the crowd to “fight much harder” against “bad people” and to “show strength.” His comments that day have been a focal point of Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation into the president and his inner circle, with investigators using one of their summer hearings to make the case that Trump’s efforts to hold on to power resonated with extremist groups and brought them to the Capitol. Read More…

European Space Probe Proves Alabama Scientist Right About Solar Wind https://digitalalabamanews.com/european-space-probe-proves-alabama-scientist-right-about-solar-wind/ News Published: Sep. 15, 2022, 10:21 a.m. The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has taken the first-ever image of a solar switchback in the corona (boxed), confirming Dr. Gary Zank’s theory of switchback origin. European scientists have confirmed an Alabama astrophysicist was right two years ago with his models of strange spikes in the solar wind, the stream of protons and electrons coming from the Sun’s outmost “atmosphere” or corona. Dr. Gary Zank of the University of Alabama in Huntsville and his team came up with the explanation for the spikes – or kinks – in solar emissions in 2020, and the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has now “seen” them. The phenomenon is called a “solar switchback” and this is the first time it has been directly observed. Six times faster than a Category 5 hurricane and “super hot,” the solar wind “smacks” the Earth’s atmosphere when it happens, as one NASA scientist put it. Not enough is known about it – one reason the Solar Orbiter is there – but we know it is “responsible for triggering those majestic auroras typically seen at locations close to our north and south poles,” NASA says. “In some cases it can also set off space weather storms that disrupt everything from our satellites in space, to ship communications on our oceans, to power grids on land.” A solar switchback is a move within a move or “a propagating kink in a magnetic field,” Zank said, “with the most extreme case being an almost S-shaped kink in the field line that reverses its direction twice.” Zank said. “It’s a somewhat complicated wave with an unusual wave form,” he said. Zank and other Alabama researchers are studying various space phenomena that could lead to new technologies and the ability to predict the space weather that can disrupt those Earth communications. The switchbacks were inferred by data from instruments on the Parker Solar Probe. Italian scientist Dr. Daniele Telloni thought the images she was seeing looked like a solar switchback, reports said. “My immediate reaction was of some astonishment that such a plasma structure could be so clearly observed using remote observations,” Zank said. One of the instruments used in the studies is a Faraday cup developed by UAH, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. It’s the only instrument outside the solar probe’s heat shield directly sampling particles as the probe makes “daisy petal-like dips” into and out of the solar wind. Now that scientists understand how switchbacks happen, Zank said they need to understand “ensembles” of many switchbacks in the solar wind. The theory suggests an explanation, he said, but it isn’t fully understood yet. Understanding is closer because of these new approaches, Zank said. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Jumbo Package: Angry Saban Edition: Far Too Many Of Alabama’s Problems Lie In Execution https://digitalalabamanews.com/jumbo-package-angry-saban-edition-far-too-many-of-alabamas-problems-lie-in-execution/ We’re going to rant today, and by “we,” I mean all of us, not “Erik, in the Royal We.” So, let’s start. Alabama’s explosive offense under BoB has consisted of “throw it to JaMo and hope magic happens.” That was a great plan when, you know, JaMo was on the team. Without JaMo, the offensive explosion has been more of a toilet water-soaked Black Cat firecracker. That failson nitwit is simply incapable of scheming players into space, and has been relying on out-talenting teams. So, what is a Gump to do without JaMo? Why, we hope the next JaMo comes along. And, fortunately for Tide fans, the speedy Tyler Harrell, should return “soon.” Let’s just hope it’s before the Arkansas game. Yeesh. I can’t do ten more games of this crap. Watching O’Brien stumble around with the playbook is like taking imported Russian caviar and cutting it with raw sewage to make it last longer. Sure, you get more of it, but all you’ve done is ruin a high-end product because you’re a damned fool who thinks no one will notice the smear on our cracker. And, no, don’t think for a second I forgot to give you that second piece on the BoB experience. That’s coming up tomorrow. For now, just know that I’m still angry. As you should be. I’m not the only one mad. Saban is mad at Alabama’s fundamentals, which is simply not something you want to hear in the third week of the season: “It’s also focusing on the fundamental way that you need to do your job, whether it’s hand placement when you’re blocking somebody, whether it’s hand placement as a defensive line when you’re striking a blocker,” Saban said after Wednesday’s practice. “All those things help you have a chance to be successful on that particular play – footwork covering somebody, how you run routes, how you release, how you come out of the route at the top of the route. “All those things, when you say play smart, that means you have to do it correctly because that gives you the best chance. That’s not mental errors, aight, that’s just a lack of fundamental execution and sort of buying into the fact that if I do this right, that’s gonna give me the best chance to be successful. That’s just something that I thought did fairly well in the first game, but we did not nearly as well last week on the road. That’s something that we need to develop consistency in.” If that continues, then don’t expect to see this two-deep remain static. Players will lose their starting positions. I think you saw what Saban is alluding to last week, for instance, when you had four guys executing on the line, and one player just folding like a dandelion in a gale. Promising running plays were blown up at the LOS because of it, resulting in a lack of consistency. And honestly, many of Alabama’s running game woes this year can be traced that to one issue: interior line play, and one guy. That unit in particular is unlikely to continue to stand-pat because of such fundamental execution errors. Last season, we saw the fundamental flaws emerge in early September at the Swamp. Too many of us shooed them away, thinking that the close call did Alabama good. It did not. They would manifest as season-long ones that emerged again at Auburn, at Aggieland, against LSU. Can this coaching staff and this team learn this year? I mean, they’ve had 17 games now to correct the exact same problems and have not done so to-date. In fact, Alabama has severely regressed in almost every respect, at least on offense. This is a year that Alabama was set up for a run at the crown. After two weeks, I can’t say as I’m optimistic about those chances, nor am I forgiving about it. These players are getting paid now, so it’s time to earn your keep or lose your job. And every coordinator on staff is a millionaire. So, again, earn your keep or lose your job. My charity level it an all-time low, and my patience is absolutely nil at the moment. The fact Saban was having to chastise his team in Week One for not focusing on that week’s opponent, and again in Week Three for execution errors, tells me he’s more than a bit angry too. This team has soooo much potential, and they’re really, truly trying to buy-in and be leaders. But just something feels…off. Again. Let’s see how much they can grow over the next two weeks. It could be worse? We could have Jimbo Fisher calling plays…and then hemming and hawing about continuing to do it forever: “In time I would, yeah. Possibly could,” Fisher said. “You always evaluate those things. We evaluate everything we do. It’s a conglomerate play-calling too — we’re getting information from everybody, thoughts and ideas that we put down. Those sheets we do going into the game. It’s a collective group decision based on off our offensive staff and what we do and how we do things. But yes, possibly yes.” Jimbo-to-English translation: “Can’t stop, won’t stop. But I have to say this because people are mad at me.” Hockey opens its full home season this Friday, and the schedule was just dropped yesterday. If you’re ever in Pelham, give it a go. The Frozen Tide are a lot of fun. It’s a great venue for those who want to support ‘Bama athletics, but not necessarily deal with the rushed cattle call of a gym meet or basketball game, or the time and expense of a trip to BDS. It’s also remarkably affordable and a great way to stretch an entertainment dollar. Nick Saban addressed this waaaaay back in 2015 and 2016, with the Blake Barnett / Jalen Hurts saga — Quarterbacks just cannot sit and be developed any more. Some people wait their turn, for sure. But that’s a 50-50 prospect. In the portal era, Top-5 QBs have transferred half the time. If you think coaching is a carousel, the movement among signal callers is even more fluid. And there are many reasons for it; hanging on to quality depth and managing the roster at the spot has become one of the toughest (and most crucial) tasks in coaching. Call it what you want — impatience, entitlement, free will or free agency — the numbers show the process was well established before the transfer portal debuted in October 2018. (The one-time transfer exemption was not legislated until August 2021.) All of five of the top-rated quarterbacks in the Class of 2016 eventually transferred. Since the portal was established, half of the top five have left (10 of 20). “In their world of recruiting, they’ve always been the guys,” former Arizona, Texas A&M and Houston coach Kevin Sumlin said of top quarterback prospects. “The combination of that, their handlers, their coaches, their trainers — and then the parents start believing they’re the best ever. They’re not only preparing for their own games; they’re watching everybody else in the country.” It’s sometimes a weekly juggling act that has recruitniks, coaches, fans and even the players themselves constantly looking outside the program for the next best thing. Everyone assumed (and Lane Kiffin has verified) that the Mississippi Schools were going to be hamstrung in an NIL era. There are plenty of reasons for it. At-best regional brands, poor schools, poor state with a diminishing population, lack of powerful alumni base, etc. But, one thing they do have going for them is good ole’ fashioned cronyism. And, buddy, it’s making its way to the Hart Building via one of the most powerful GOP Senators in the caucus. One of the most powerful Republicans in the U.S. Senate is reintroducing a bill to govern name, image and likeness (NIL) that would “preserve the unique amateur nature of college sports,” he says. Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the ranking member of the committee believed to hold jurisdiction over any NIL legislation, is proposing a similar bill to the one he introduced in December 2020. His legislation would legalize college athlete NIL by using a national standard of rules that prohibits boosters and schools from utilizing NIL in recruiting Just call this one the Lane Kiffin Act of 2022. You can’t help but be happy for yet another Saban protege, former Alabama RBC and recruiting coordinator Charles Huff. His Marshall Thundering Herd went into Notre Dame Stadium and ran over, around, and through the Fighting Irish to secure the best name-brand win in program history last week. Very good feature here from Football Scoop: [Huff] also began to further hone a knack of impacting others after he joined Nick Saban’s Alabama staff in 2019. “Just the way that he treated everybody, his overall way that he approached everybody and his work on daily basis,” said Marc Votteler, who, like Huff, arrived at Alabama in 2019 as the Tide’s assistant director of player personnel. “His attitude, organization, everything. I could go on and on. “He has this presence about him that you just can kind of tell people gravitate toward him, and he has an ability that he relates to everybody in all aspects of life. He won’t meet anybody he can’t find something to relate to them and get them to open up.” And, but for those who lament lack of progress in minority hiring at the college level, some of the hottest black head coaches in the nation were on Nick’s staff — Charles Huff and Mel Tucker among them (to say nothing of Freddie Roach, who is destined for a big-time gig soon). Talent not only rises to the top; but that top talented is developed, not born. Saban knows how to spot them, and how to develop them. AL.com has a great story on the emergence of icy Will Reichard, the recipient of our 2020 Big Dick Energy award. At the time, we said this: At quarterback, wide out, and even defensive back, we expect cocksure attitudes from those convinced that he swings the biggest schlong in the bar. But Reichard takes a back seat to no one. He is perfect on the year in kicks: He leads the nation at 37-of-37 on PAT, leads the nation in PAT attempts...

Rep. Chip Roy Says Lawmakers Should See The Full Trump-Raid Affidavit https://digitalalabamanews.com/rep-chip-roy-says-lawmakers-should-see-the-full-trump-raid-affidavit/ By Tom Howell Jr. – The Washington Times Thursday, September 15, 2022 Rep. Chip Roy of Texas says that members of Congress should be able to see the full affidavit used to justify a search of former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida and that Democrats should join him in demanding the document. A federal judge released a redacted version of the document, hoping to balance Mr. Trump’s demand for transparency and the Justice Department’s fears that the full version would imperil witnesses or other aspects of their investigation into sensitive documents that were discovered at Mar-a-Lago. “What in the hell are my colleagues afraid of in seeing the full unredacted version?” Mr. Roy said Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. “The American people right now are tired of seeing the power of government being used against them.” Mr. Roy said he respects the role of prosecutors and law enforcement but that Congress must conduct oversight to ensure that Attorney General Merrick Garland is not abusing his authority on behalf of President Biden, who could face Mr. Trump again in 2024. FBI agents searched Mr. Trump’s estate in August and seized boxes of documents. The raid followed a back-and-forth between government archivists and Mr. Trump’s attorneys over the discovery of papers with high-level markings at Mar-a-Lago. Those documents, they said, contained high-level secrets and should be in the custody of the government in a secure place. Mr. Roy said if the affidavit is too sensitive for public consumption, then lawmakers can take a look at it within a sensitive compartmentalized information facility, or SCIF. “We’re sitting here right now simply wanting to see the entirety of an affidavit so that we can do our oversight duty, our job,” he said. “If there’s some concern about that, not being able to be seen by the public, we can march down to the [secure facility] right now and go look at the fully unredacted version.” Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC. Read More…

Biden Approval Rises Sharply Ahead Of Midterms, AP-NORC Poll Finds https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-approval-rises-sharply-ahead-of-midterms-ap-norc-poll-finds/ President Joe Biden’s popularity improved substantially from his lowest point this summer, but concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans. Their outlook appears better after notching a string of legislative successes that left more Americans ready to judge the Democratic president on his preferred terms: “Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.” The president’s approval rating remains underwater, with 53% of U.S. adults disapproving of him, and the economy continues to be a weakness for Biden. Just 38% approve of his economic leadership as the country faces stubbornly high inflation and Republicans try to make household finances the axis of the upcoming vote. Still, the poll suggests Biden and his fellow Democrats are gaining momentum right as generating voter enthusiasm and turnout takes precedence. Average gas prices have tumbled 26% since June to $3.71 a gallon, reducing the pressure somewhat on family budgets even if inflation remains high. Congress also passed a pair of landmark bills in the past month that could reshape the economy and reduce carbon emissions. Republicans have also faced resistance since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its abortion protections. And Biden is openly casting former President Donald Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, a charge that took on resonance after an FBI search of Trump’s Florida home found classified documents that belong to the U.S. government. This combination of factors has won Biden some plaudits among the Democratic faithful, even if Americans still feel lukewarm about his leadership. “I’m not under any belief that he’s the best person for the job — he’s the best from the people we had to choose from,” said Betty Bogacz, 74, a retiree from Portland, Oregon. “He represented stability, which I feel President Trump did not represent at all.” Biden’s approval rating didn’t exceed 40% in May, June or July as inflation surged in the aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine. But his string of wins over the past month continued on Thursday, after the poll was conducted, when he announced a tentative deal between railways and unions that avoided a strike that could have shut down the railroads and devastated the economy. The president’s rating now is similar to what it was throughout the first quarter of the year, but he continues to fall short of early highs. His average approval rating in AP-NORC polling through the first six months of his term was 60%. Driving the recent increase in Biden’s popularity is renewed support among Democrats, who had shown signs of dejection in the early summer. Now, 78% of Democrats approve of Biden’s job performance, up from 65% in July. Sixty-six percent of Democrats approve of Biden on the economy, up from 54% in June. Interviews suggest a big reason for Biden’s rebound is the reemergence of Trump on the national stage, causing voters such as Stephen Jablonsky, who labeled Biden as “OK,” to say voting Democratic is a must for the nation’s survival. “The country has a political virus by the name of Donald Trump,” said Jablonsky, a retired music professor from Stamford, Connecticut. “We have a man who is psychotic and seems to have no concern for law and order and democracy. The Republican Party has gone to a place that is so unattractive and so dangerous, this coming election in November could be the last election we ever have.” Republicans feel just as negative about Biden as they did before. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans approve of the president overall or on the economy, similar to ratings earlier this summer. Christine Yannuzzi, 50, doubts that 79-year-old Biden has the capacity to lead. “I don’t think he’s mentally, completely aware of everything that’s happening all the time,” said Yannuzzi, who lives in Binghamton, New York. “The economy’s doing super poorly and I have a hard time believing that the joblessness rate is as low as they say it is.” “I think the middle class is being really phased out and families are working two and three jobs a person to make it,” the Republican added. Twenty-nine percent of U.S. adults say the economy is in good shape, while 71% say it’s doing poorly. In June, 20% said conditions were good and 79% said they were bad. Democrats are more positive now than they were in June, 46% vs. 31%. Republicans remain largely negative, with only 10% saying conditions are good and 90% saying they’re bad. About a quarter of Americans now say things in the country are headed in the right direction, 27%, up from 17% in July. Seventy-two percent say things are going in the wrong direction. Close to half of Democrats — 44% — have an optimistic outlook, up from 27% in July. Just 9% of Republicans are optimistic about the nation’s direction. Akila Atkins, a 27-year-old stay-at-home mom of two, thinks Biden is “OK” and doesn’t have much confidence that his solutions will curb rising prices. Atkins says it’s gotten a little harder in the last year to manage her family’s expenses, and she’s frustrated that she can no longer rely on the expanded child tax credit. The tax credit paid out monthly was part of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and has since lapsed. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the expanded tax credit nearly halved the child poverty rate last year to 5.2%. Atkins said it helped them “stay afloat with bills, the kids’ clothing, shoes, school supplies, everything.” Whatever misgivings the Democrat in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has about Biden, she believes he is preferable to Trump. “I always feel like he could be better, but then again, he’s better than our last president,” she said. Read More…

Steel Dynamics Boosts Outlook, U.S. Steel On Track After Nucor Warning https://digitalalabamanews.com/steel-dynamics-boosts-outlook-u-s-steel-on-track-after-nucor-warning/ Steel Dynamics (STLD) said Thursday that third-quarter earnings are tracking above analyst estimates. That followed guidance from Nucor (NUE), which on Wednesday warned that profit will lag estimates. U.S. Steel (X), which also updated business trends on Thursday, said profit is running a bit below analyst expectations amid “market headwinds that accelerated” during Q3. Arconic (ARNC), which makes aluminum products for aerospace, automotive and industrial markets, cut guidance late Wednesday amid production issues in the U.S. and a hit from both lower demand and high energy costs in Europe. STLD stock rose 1.25% in early Thursday stock market action, following a 9% pounding on Wednesday. Nucor slipped another 2.5%, after tumbling 11.3% a day earlier. U.S. Steel slipped 0.4% on the heels of Wednesday’s 8.6% dive. ARNC stock sank 14.25%. Steel Dynamics Boosts Output Like Nucor, Steel Dynamics highlighted lower steel pricing. The big difference is that Steel Dynamics said its output is rising from Q2 levels, while Nucor shipments will fall even more than expected. “Lower average flat rolled steel pricing is expected to more than offset lower raw material costs and higher shipments,” Steel Dynamics said in a statement. A day earlier, Nucor had attributed softer-than-expected earnings to “metal margin contraction and reduced shipping volumes particularly at our sheet and plate mills.” The near-term futures contract for hot-rolled coil has pulled back to about $800 from about $915 when Nucor reported second-quarter  earnings on July 21. That likely has contributed to narrower profit margins. Nucor may be feeling the effects of increased steel industry supply, which was one of the reasons for caution going into 2022. That could explain why shipment volumes are apparently off more than expected. Nucor made no mention of production downtime. Meanwhile, Steel Dynamics has been ramping output at its new Sinton, Texas, mill. U.S. Steel Idles Capacity Imports also appear to be adding to excess supply. In its update, U.S. Steel said that it idled a blast furnace and a tin line at its Gary Works complex, citing market conditions and elevated imports. U.S. Steel also pulled forward a 30-day maintenance outage of a Mon Valley blast furnace and a 60-day outage of a European blast furnace. “We have quickly adjusted our integrated steelmaking operating footprint to better match our order book and expect our Tubular segment to deliver another quarter of earnings growth,” CEO David Burritt said in a statement. Revised Steel Earnings Outlooks Steel Dynamics said it expects Q3 EPS of $5.33 to $5.37, excluding 40-cent startup costs for its Sinton mill. Analysts were expecting $5.03. U.S. Steel said it’s on track to earning $1.90-$1.95 cents a share in Q3 vs. expectations of $2.09, according to FactSet. Nucor now predicts earnings of $6.30 to $6.40 per share, well below estimates of $7.56 a share from analysts polled by FactSet. In its second-quarter earnings statement, Nucor said it expected results to fall sequentially in the third quarter after a quarterly record profit of $9.67 per share. The company already anticipated lower expected shipment volumes and prices, but may have been surprised at the extent of the weakness. Steel Dynamics said, “Broad underlying steel demand and corresponding order activity remains intact from the automotive, construction, industrial, and energy sectors.” The company said profits from its steel fabrication operations should top record second quarter results, based on continued strong volume and expanding margins. Nucor said its steel products segment is expected to have “another strong quarter,” with earnings roughly in line with the second quarter of 2022. Raw materials segment earnings also are expected to be similar to the second quarter of 2022. And Nucor said it’s still on track for its most profitable year ever. That suggests things may be stabilizing at a lower level, rather than snowballing. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Catch The Next Big Winning Stock With MarketSmith Want To Get Quick Profits And Avoid Big Losses? Try SwingTrader Best Growth Stocks To Buy And Watch IBD Digital: Unlock IBD’s Premium Stock Lists, Tools And Analysis Today What To Do Now As Market Tries To Bounce Back Read More…

New Push To Terminate Donald Trump's NYC Golf Contract https://digitalalabamanews.com/new-push-to-terminate-donald-trumps-nyc-golf-contract/ ABC7 New York 24/7 Eyewitness News Stream THE LOOP | Live NYC weather and traffic cams WATCH LIVE Welcome, Your Account Log Out The officials are also calling on the city to cancel an upcoming Saudi-backed golf tournament. NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Families of the victims of the September 11th attacks are joining New York City Council members in a push for the city to cut ties with the Trump Organization’s public golf course in the Bronx. A hearing will be is being held Thursday after City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Parks Chair Shekar Krishnan called on Mayor Eric Adams and Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue to terminate the company’s license to operate Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point. The officials are also calling on the city to cancel an upcoming Saudi-backed golf tournament. Supporters say grounds for termination include Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg’s guilty plea last month to 15 felony counts, as well as the large number of ongoing lawsuits against Donald Trump. The move comes after families of 9/11 victims protested Trump’s hosting of a Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament back in July. The event took place at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, NJ, about 50 miles from the site of the World Trade Center attacks. ALSO READ | Tracing the steps of asylum seekers as they settle in New York City ———- * Get Eyewitness News Delivered * More New York City news * Send us a news tip * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts * Follow us on YouTube Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply. Copyright © 2022 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved. Read More…

Kroger Begins Birmingham Delivery Service — Even Without A Grocery Store https://digitalalabamanews.com/kroger-begins-birmingham-delivery-service-even-without-a-grocery-store/ Business Published: Sep. 15, 2022, 9:18 a.m. National grocery chain Kroger is launching a delivery service in Birmingham, creating 160 jobs in the area, the Alabama Department of Commerce announced Friday. Kroger is today celebrating the opening of its delivery service in the Birmingham area. Announced back in March, the grocery retailer is opening a 50,000-square-foot facility at 30 West Oxmoor Rd. as a last-mile “spoke” location for its new delivery network, supplied by a high-tech customer fulfillment center, near Atlanta. An official opening is scheduled for this afternoon. The spoke is employing about 160 people in technology, operations, logistics and transportation, inventory and quality management, and customer service and engagement. Just in the last quarter, Kroger has opened seven new spoke fulfillment centers in addition to Birmingham around the country, including in Nashville, Louisville, Austin, Chicago, Oklahoma City and San Antonio. According to the company, the delivery system works like this: At the hub sites, robots move around a giant 3D grid, known as The Hive. Robots retrieve products from the Hive and send them to stations for sorting prior to delivery. Fragile items are placed on top, and the recyclable bags are evenly weighted, with attention paid to using the fewest number of bags. The products are loaded into customized, refrigerated delivery vans and transported to spokes, so deliveries can made from there. The delivery service also puts the grocer in competition with Shipt, headquartered in Birmingham and a national player across several retail categories. Just this week, the Kroger Co. reported its digital sales for the second quarter grew 8% compared to the same quarter a year earlier, including a 34% rise in sales ordered online for delivery. Delivery fees are $6.95, or customers can enroll in a yearly subscription service. Although the chain has no store in the Birmingham area, Kroger has 10 brick-and-mortar retail food stores in north and east Alabama. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Armenia Says 105 Troops Killed In Azerbaijan Border Clashes https://digitalalabamanews.com/armenia-says-105-troops-killed-in-azerbaijan-border-clashes/ By Leo Sands BBC News Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Firefighters at the ruins of a house in Sotk, which Armenia claimed had been hit by Azeri shelling More than 100 Armenian soldiers have been killed in border clashes with Azerbaijan since Monday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said. Azerbaijan said on Thursday that 71 of its troops had been killed, in fighting which both sides blame on the other. It is the latest in a series of long-running conflicts fought between the two former Soviet republics over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Russia and the US have each called for peace between the two countries. Speaking to his country’s parliament, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said 105 Armenian servicemen had been killed since Monday night in attacks he blamed on Azerbaijan. He also accused Azeri troops of occupying 10 sq km (4 sq miles) of Armenian territory this week and said he had now turned to Russia for military assistance – a long-time ally of Armenia. Azerbaijan denies the Armenian account of this week’s events, including reports that it fired upon vehicles belonging to Russia’s FSB security services stationed inside Armenia. Instead, Azerbaijan claims its neighbour started the conflict by shelling military targets within its own district of Kalbacar. “Our units are taking the necessary response measures,” Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said, according to Reuters. A fragile ceasefire brokered by Russia on Tuesday failed to hold, with both sides blaming the other of breaching the agreement and reports of violence continuing into Wednesday evening. Late on Wednesday evening Armenia said a truce has been agreed with Azerbaijan, although there has been no confirmation yet from Azerbaijan. On Thursday Azerbaijan’s defence ministry published a list of 71 servicemen killed in the clashes. The fighting is the deadliest to break out between the two neighbours in two years. International leaders are intensifying diplomatic efforts to prevent it from escalating into an even deadlier war – as has happened with previous skirmishes in the past. In addition to the human cost of a second war in the former USSR, a full-blown conflict would risk dragging in Russia and Turkey, both key powers in the region, as well as disrupting crucial oil and gas transit routes. As part of that diplomatic effort, the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is sending a peace mission to Armenia that the Kremlin said would arrive “imminently”. Turkey is aligning itself with Azerbaijan and its President, Recep Erdogan, has accused Armenia of starting the conflict by violating an existing peace settlement. In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held phone calls with the leaders of both nations in the hope of facilitating a ceasefire – urging Moscow to do more as well. A long-running dispute between the neighbouring republics over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region has led to full-scale war in the 1980s and 1990s, a six-week war in 2020 and continuing clashes for decades. Although internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, the region has long been populated and effectively administered by ethnic Armenians. A Moscow-brokered peace deal that ended the 2020 war saw Armenia withdraw its troops from some occupied areas within Azerbaijan. A Russian peacekeeping force of nearly 2,000 men was deployed to the area as part of the negotiations, where it remains today. Read More…

Booker T. Jones Performs At Stax, Ahead Of Milestone https://digitalalabamanews.com/booker-t-jones-performs-at-stax-ahead-of-milestone-2/ By ADRIAN SAINZ – Associated Press MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Wearing a blue suit, black hat and multi-colored socks, master keyboardist Booker T. Jones leaned away from the Hammond B3 organ, tilted his head back and worked the keys and foot pedals as he played the funky and familiar hit “Green Onions” for a head-bobbing, toe-tapping crowd at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. The intimate performance by Jones and a tight backup band Wednesday was part of an event at the Memphis, Tennessee, museum that previewed its yearlong 20th anniversary celebration planned for 2023. Built on the site of the former Stax Records, the museum celebrates the influential soul music born from the studio where Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and others recorded some of American popular music’s most memorable songs. “Right here in this space, you are on hallowed ground,” said Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, which oversees the museum. Jones’ rousing renditions of “Hip Hugger,” “Time is Tight,” “Soul Limbo,” and the 60-year-old “Green Onions” followed a video announcing events celebrating the museum’s opening two decades ago. They include a year’s worth of free field trips for students, a concert series featuring performances by national acts, and a mobile “pop-up” vehicle that will take Stax music, merchandise and more to locations like Austin’s SXSW, Nashville’s Americana Fest and New Orleans’ Essence Festival. A Memphis native, Jones, 77, said he feels fortunate to have been able to develop his musical talent just a few blocks from his house, at Stax. Jones said he feels “an openness” when he walks into the Stax building. “I guess you can say that there are locations on the Earth, some more conducive to art than others,” Jones told reporters before his performance. “This is a location that is conducive to art.” The museum is a top attraction in Memphis, where Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street and the Memphis Rock N’ Soul Museum also treat tourists to the music created in the Mississippi River city. Stax fostered a raw sound born from Black church music, the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. It featured tight rhythm sections, powerful horn players, and singers who could be sexy and soulful in one tune, loud and forceful in another. Some of Stax’s musicians grew up near the studio, which moved into the old Capitol Theatre in 1960. They called it “Soulsville U.S.A.” — a name that stuck to the surrounding working class neighborhood, now called Soulsville. Jones was a member of Booker T. and the M.G.s, a biracial quartet that served as the recording studio’s house band, backing up many of the studio’s hitmakers. Along with the multiracial Memphis Horns, they provided the foundation for songs that became to soul music what Motown was to rhythm and blues. “Working at Stax was like giving a daily sermon to the world, of being open with loving emotions to others regardless of who they were or looked like,” said David Porter, who wrote hits such as Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man.” Stax Records enjoyed massive success into the late 1960s. But Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays died in a plane crash in 1967, and the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 intensified racial division in Memphis and around the country. By the mid-1970s, Stax was out of business due to financial turmoil and legal problems. The building that housed the studio was demolished. The museum opened in May 2003. It offers self-guided tours and includes a film detailing the studio’s history, exhibits chronicling the origins and development of Memphis soul music, listening stations and memorabilia such as Hayes’ flashy Cadillac car. Adjacent to the museum is the Stax Music Academy, an after-school program where teenagers from some of Memphis’ poorest neighborhoods learn how to dance, sing and play instruments. The Soulsville Foundation operates the museum, the academy and a charter school. Porter, who co-wrote “Hold On I’m Comin” after songwriting partner Isaac Hayes called for him to hurry up while Porter was in the bathroom, is among several Stax ambassadors for the anniversary. Others include guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper, former Stax Records executive and owner Al Bell and singer-songwriter Eddie Floyd, of “Knock on Wood” fame. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Read More…

Jan. 6 Rioter Who Wore 'Camp Auschwitz' Sweatshirt To Be Sentenced https://digitalalabamanews.com/jan-6-rioter-who-wore-camp-auschwitz-sweatshirt-to-be-sentenced/ WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt inside the U.S. Capitol is set to be sentenced Thursday, and his sister is urging the court not to “judge a book by [its] cover.” Robert Keith Packer was arrested the week after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and pleaded guilty a year later, in January, to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful picketing and parading. The government wants him to serve 75 days of incarceration as well as three years of probation. Packer admitted that he traveled from Newport News, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 “to attend the rally” held by former President Donald Trump and that he then “entered the building despite seeing broken windows and tear gas deployed by police.” He admitted he was “in a crowd of people in the hallway when rioters took down and broke apart” a sign bearing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s name that was located outside her office. Robert Packer. (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019, will sentence Packer during a virtual court hearing at 12:30 p.m. ET. Packer’s defense attorney, Stephen Brennwald, compared Packer to Forrest Gump, writing that Packer’s “demeanor and presence… appeared to be similar to the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump — a man who went through life almost as if he was outside of his body and mind, looking in.” Brennwald wrote that Packer had received “quite significant” harassment from the public, “mostly because of the nature of the offensive shirt he was wearing.” Brennwald also said that Packer’s own son won’t speak to him because of his views, and asked the court to impose a probationary sentence. Kimberly Rice, Packer’s sister, wrote a letter in support of her brother, calling him “hands down the BEST BROTHER with a HUGE heart and gentle soul.” She said they grew up in a “blue collar, middle class Christian values home,” and that they traveled to D.C. together, but wrote that she left early because of the cold weather. She portrayed her brother as a victim of media attention. “Over the last year and half the media has portrayed and described a person who he is NOT and NEVER has been. His day to day living over the last year and half has been so altered and a major struggle for him, living in fear because of the news media slandering his name and making him out to be some monster that he absolutely is not, losing his long tenure job, death threats to him and and so on,” she wrote. “It’s so easy to judge a book by it’s [sic] cover, without knowing the details of what is truly inside — yet it is also so wrong. All over a sweatshirt — yes a sweatshirt,” she wrote, describing a sweatshirt celebrating the location of at least 1.1 million deaths during the Holocaust. “Yes, it could be considered in poor taste just as much as so much more is these days, but it’s not a crime for freedom of expression.” The government’s sentencing memo notes that his sweatshirt bore the word “STAFF” on the back and the phrase “Work Means Freedom” on the front, which “recalls the sign over the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War Two.” Packer, when asked during a FBI interview after his guilty plea why he had worn the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, “fatuously replied ‘because I was cold’,” according to federal prosecutors. The “Camp Auschwitz” shirt wasn’t the only piece of pro-nazi paraphernalia that Packer sported on Jan. 6. Video provided to NBC News this week shows that earlier in the day Packer was wearing a “Schutzstaffel” shirt, referencing Adolph Hitler’s paramilitary unit headed by Heinrich Himmler that is more commonly referred to as the “SS.” More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and more than 350 have been convicted. Sentences have ranged from short periods of probation for misdemeanors to a decade behind bars for a former New York City police officer who assaulted a D.C. police officer on Jan. 6 and then lied on the stand. The FBI has the names of hundreds of additional Jan. 6 participants who could be charged but have not yet been arrested. Earlier this week, a Trump-appointed judge convicted three rioters of felony charges in connection with the violence in the tunnel on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but acquitted two of the defendants on an obstruction of an official proceeding charge that came with significant prison exposure. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Read More…

US Likely Bought Chinese Solar Panels Made With Forced Labor: Uyghur Advocate https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-likely-bought-chinese-solar-panels-made-with-forced-labor-uyghur-advocate/ As House Republicans demand an investigation over suspicion that Department of Homeland Security money is being used to buy Chinese solar panels made with forced labor, there is a high possibility that Uyghur slave labor has been involved, according to Salih Hudayar, the prime minister of the East Turkistan government-in-exile. “It’s very likely given the fact that prior to China starting its official campaign of genocide and forced labor of the Uyghurs in 2014, solar power polysilicon production in East Turkistan amounted for only 9 percent of the global production. By 2021, it proliferated to over 50 percent of global production,” Hudayar said in an interview on NTD News, The Epoch Times’ sister media. “And the fact that this is happening around the same time that China’s locking up millions of Uyghurs and other peoples in concentration camps and forced labor camps, shows us that this is only possible if the Chinese [regime] was using slave labor of Uyghurs,” he added. Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Hudayar pointed to the links of many solar panel manufacturers with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). He said it is a “Chinese paramilitary force that is responsible for not only colonizing Turkistan, but also suppressing any dissent.” It is an entity that was sanctioned by the U.S. government back in July 2021 as it is “implementing the ongoing genocide,” he said. On July 31, 2021, the Trump administration announced sanctions on current and former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials heading the XPCC, as well as the XPCC itself, over human rights abuses. Torture of Uyghurs The United Nations estimates that more than a million Uyghurs have been detained in internment camps in the Xinjiang region. Hudayar affirmed credible reports have shown that the Uyghurs are facing sexual abuse, rape, and having their organs harvested, much like the believers of Falun Gong. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice composed of meditative exercises and a set of moral teachings based on the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance. It grew in popularity during the 1990s leading to up to 100 million people practicing in China by the end of the decade. Perceiving this to be a threat, the Chinese regime in 1999 launched a nationwide campaign seeking to eradicate the practice. Since then, millions of adherents have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and detention centers across the country, where they are subjected to torture, slave labor, and forced organ harvesting. New evidence has emerged pointing to the Chinese regime’s ongoing organ harvesting crimes, according to Ethan Gutmann, China studies research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. In Gutmann’s estimation, 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghurs are being killed for their organs every year—a number similar to that of estimates for Falun Gong adherents. Those in the camps are being “subjected to forced indoctrination, up to 14 to 16 hours a day, praising the Chinese Communist Party,” Hudayar added. According to Hudayar, forced labor is being used as a sort of a recursive cycle. “Because even to hold millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps, it cost the Chinese [regime] a lot of money to pay for their security forces to pay for all the extra, [such as] surveillance and other systems that they have in place,” he explained. Hudayar pointed to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which President Joe Biden signed into law in December 2021 and which went into effect in June, bans imports from Xinjiang unless companies can prove that the products weren’t produced using forced labor. “It’s completely unacceptable that the U.S. government or any entity is doing business with a sanctioned entity that is very deeply involved in the ongoing genocide,” he said. Cathy He contributed to this report. Follow Hannah Ng is a reporter covering U.S. and China news. She holds a master’s degree in international and development economics from the University of Applied Science Berlin. Follow Read More…

AP Source: Meadows Complies With Justice Dept. Subpoena https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-source-meadows-complies-with-justice-dept-subpoena/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, has complied with a Justice Department subpoena and turned over records as part of a federal investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a person familiar the matter said Thursday. The records produced by Meadows are the same ones he earlier provided to a House committee conducting a similar investigation, according to the person, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing Justice Department probe. The subpoena to Meadows, first reported by CNN, makes clear that Justice Department officials are seeking information from the most senior of Trump’s White House advisers as they examine wide-ranging efforts to overturn the results of the election won by Democrat Joe Biden. The department, whose work at times has mirrored or overlapped with that of the committee, this month served a broad wave of grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to Trump allies. Meadows has been a pivotal figure in the House investigation, his name invoked repeatedly in testimony by other Trump advisers, including by his own top aide. He had provided the committee with thousands of text messages, including communications with outside Trump allies and advisers. In a filing in April in a federal lawsuit over his House subpoena, a lawyer for Meadows accused the committee of trying to vilify him publicly, noting that all of the texts it had been provided had been disclosed to the news media. The committee declined at the time to respond to the accusation. Meadows did not provide to the committee records he believed were subject to claims of executive privilege and those documents were also not produced to the Justice Department. ___ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of Jan. 6 at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More…